Wildcard
by Light In The Void
Summary: As a newly fledged Contractor, Shinichi needs a Partner. He's picked Kid. Kid's not too happy about that. Oh yeah, and there's a secret war going on, did I mention? Have fun with that. KaiShin. Probably HakuAo as well. Summary may change later.
1. Prologue: Showtime

Heyyyyyy :D So, I attempted NaNoWriMo this year and thought I'd try my hand at a DC/MK fic. Ended up writing this one, which came from an idea sparked on the first day, as opposed to the one I'd been planning to do xD; As such, advanced warnings for what might be a very random plot. I don't know. I'm still figuring out what actually happens, to be honest :D; Anyway, please enjoy and thanks for reading!

**Warnings:** Blood, I guess? It kind of comes with the DC territory though :\

**Disclaimer:** I can't be bothered to write one for each chapter separately, so this will hold for all chapters of this fic. I don't own the characters or plot of Detective Conan or Magic Kaito (as much as I sometimes wish I did :P). The only claim I make is to my OCs, but if anyone else wants to use them I don't mind, just let me know first, okay? :D

Awesome. Onto an exceedingly random plot~~ Enjoy!

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><p><em><strong>Wildcard<br>**__**Prologue: Showtime**_

_It only takes one pebble to start an avalanche._

_Two months earlier:_

In the hours of the early morning, long before dawn and the world outside lay sleeping, a man hunched over a computer in a darkened room. The only light available spilled from his computer screen, bathing him in a silvery glow. He was too wary to turn on any other lights to see better - even the backlight was too bright. The man kept his ear out for small sounds, any sounds. He must not get caught.

Fingers tapped feverishly against keys, eyes squinting against the glare of the screen to read what information was uncovered with each keystroke. _Tap-tap-tap-tap_-

"Come on, come on," the man whispered, pushing his fringe out of his eyes hurriedly. "I _know_ something's up; you can't hide anything on here from me..."

A faint scuffle from outside made him freeze, eyes widening. He turned and stared into the gloom, letting his eyes adjust as they darted from corner to corner. The man barely dared breathe as he waited, listening, for another sound that could spell his demise. One hand inched slowly towards the gun at his waist. He had other means of protecting himself, but he wouldn't, _couldn't_ use those now. Not when it might be the cause of... _We __must __not __provoke __them, __if __what __I __think __is __true._

After long, tense seconds of hearing nothing but his heart thundering in his chest, he let out a shaky breath. _Probably __a __mouse._ Fox would say he was being a paranoid idiot for getting worked up over something like that... but then, she'd probably call him a fool-brained idiot just for being here in the first place, if she'd known about it. The man didn't care. It was his job, his duty, his _life_ to protect her. He had to take this risk in case the rumour he had heard turned out to be oh so terribly true...

The light around him flickered, drawing his attention back to the screen to find a dialog box flashing there.

_Search Results:  
><em>_2 files found_

He cautiously clicked the 'open' tab, having first made sure that accessing either couldn't be traced back to him. Data filled the screen, rows after rows after rows that made his eyes widen in fear. Mouth dry, he slipped out a slim black mobile from a coat pocket and, after checking again for any unusual noises or signs of another presence, thumbed out a number he knew by heart.

The man waited as it rung once, twice, three times. _Come __on __Viper, __pick __up!_ he silently urged the man at the other end.

"Hello?" a sleep-fogged voice answered.

He frowned. "Cobra? It's Hound. Where's Viper?"

"He's out on a recon mission that he didn't need me for, so he left his phone behind." A sigh from the other end. "Hound, you do realise it's two in the freaking morning, right? What's Fox gonna say?"

"Fox doesn't know I'm calling. In fact, Fox doesn't know I'm here. But that's not the important thing - look, there's something I need to talk to all of you about. Can you call Crow and get Viper to come back?"

"Now?"

"Yes, _now._ It can't wait. It's important and it's dangerous. We need to move, _now_."

The urgency in his voice, along with his whispered tone seemed to finally break through the sleepiness of the other. The voice on the other end of the line became more professional. "Got it. I'll get them all to come in. What about Fox?"

"I'll swing by and grab her on the way. Cobra, don't let anyone else know. You know where to meet. See you in twenty," he said, tapping a few more keys to bring up another screen.

"Understood. Stay safe, Hound. You know Fox couldn't handle it if you died."

"Nah, the hero can't die, can he?" Hound joked. "It'd be a waste of a story. Hound out." He ended the call, slipping the phone back inside his pocket as he hit the 'Enter' key and typed up a quick program.

"You make a poor hero," drawled a voice from behind him. Hound reacted instantly, bringing his gun out in one swift movement as he turned around -

- to stare into the barrel of a gun held at point blank range. His eyes flicked upwards, seeking out the shadowed face of his attacker although he already knew exactly who it was.

"_You __bastard_," Hound spat. "I should have known this was _your_ doing, it _reeks_ of your work."

The attacker gave a feral grin. "Sorry Hound, but Boss decided that old dogs really can't learn new tricks... so they should be put down. Don't worry, your precious Fox will be joining you soon enough!"

Hound gave an enraged growl and for a second, the room lit up with blue lightning -

_BANG!_

The new arrival stepped away from Hound's body as it fell, re-holstering his gun. "Stupid mutt," he murmured, stepping over the body and the growing pool of blood to peer at the computer screen. The glare illuminated the long scar down the side of his face, snaking up into his hairline where the hair had turned white. He was unperturbed by the red splatters across the glowing rectangle, squinting in the glare much as Hound had done earlier to see what the traitor had been looking for.

What he found was the last program Hound had written, steadily erasing all evidence that the man had been looking at anything at all. "No!" growled the man, pounding keys on the keyboard to try and terminate the program and only getting 'Access Denied' in response. He watched in enraged silence as his vital proof that _those __ones _were traitors disappeared before his very eyes. Pale eyes darted to the dead man lying on the tiled floor, mocking him.

He growled again, kicking the dead body as he turned away from the screen and pulled out a phone identical to Hound's.

"It's me, Wolf. He only called one, Cobra. Take her out before she can get word out." With that, the phone was snapped shut.

.:||:.

_Sometime in the future:_

The roofs of tall buildings, while natural vantage points, also have the unfortunate side effect of being completely unsheltered from the wind. While normally this wouldn't have bothered Conan too much, the wind was being rather enthusiastic tonight about whipping his fringe around in his face and vision while he was_trying_ to use the telescopic feature of his glasses to spy on another building nearby. Plus, the frigid night air really wasn't doing anything to keep him warm. He bit out a growl and finally resorted to holding his hair back with one hand, while the other worked the buttons on the side of the frames.

A small chuckle made him send a glare to his right. Kaitou Kid lounged against the wall there, staying out of sight of anyone who might be looking from the other building. The infuriating thief was demonstrating his ever-present ability to bend reality to his will as the wind seemed to be barely disturbing his hat _or_ cape, although logically Conan knew it was because the wall blocked the brunt of the wind. It still irked him, however, that his partner had escaped the discomfort now plaguing him, cold and wind alike. _Especially_ when said thief was playing with fire, quite literally. The vivid azure flames of Contractor magic danced and flickered around his fingers as Kid wriggled them almost absentmindedly.

"Will you cut that out?" Conan demanded with a huff, turning his attention back to the building. "One of them might see it, or sense it, which defeats the whole purpose of us trying to sneak in."

"Yes, yes," Kid replied airily, waving one gloved hand at him. "So serious! You worry too much, Tantei-kun."

_And __you're __not __taking __this __seriously __at __all!_ Conan wanted to growl back, except that he knew it wasn't true. While the thief's face was impassive, a perfect poker face, he could feel the threads of worry through their bond even though Kid was keeping all his emotions tightly tamped down. It had taken him a while to get the hang of reading the thief's emotions this way, even being able to bypass the usual mask hiding them, especially when Kid had figured out the trick of disguising his emotions internally as well as externally. Not tonight, though. No amount of light-hearted mischief that his thief had masking his heart was going to fool the detective tonight.

Kid, on the other hand, never seemed to have trouble deciphering what Conan was feeling. Well, good luck to him with that tonight. There were too many emotions swirling around in his gut for even the shrunken teen to figure out what was going on.

Conan shivered slightly as he was on the receiving end of another blast of cold air, ignoring the thief in favour of studying the building again. _One, __two, __thre__-__no, __wait, __he's __gone __inside... there's __another __one..._ He felt Kid's eyes on him, and a second later the magician-thief had crept over to crouch behind Conan.

"Relax," the magician whispered. He put his arms around the smaller boy, hands resting lightly over Conan's stomach. Again, that azure blue flashed around his hands for an instant and warmth crept back into the detective from the combined efforts of Kid's magic (well, it was technically _Conan's_ magic, but really, who bothered with the details?) and his proximity. "Better now?" Conan sent a pulse of wordless thanks along their bond; Kid hummed quietly in reply.

"Don't block me out while we're in there, alright?" the detective murmured. He felt - physically and mentally - the thief's surprise, could well imagine the thief behind raising his eyebrows at him even though he couldn't see him. Conan elaborated. "I know we said we'd respect each other's privacy, but... in these circumstances... I just feel like it would be better not to hide things from each other, you know? Just while we're in there. I need to know if you get hurt, not like last time..."

Kid was silent for a few moments, making Conan wonder if the thief was going to refuse. But then the thief sighed, his breath tickling the back of the shrunken teen's neck. "I suppose I promised, didn't I?" Conan felt the thief take down a few of the mental barriers he usually kept up at all times, ever since he had first figured out how to erect them. Kid's emotions swirled in, worry and adrenaline-fuelled excitement and determination and warmth and so many feelings Conan couldn't put a name to all mixed in together. Conan had to work hard to keep himself from being swept away, eventually getting the flow of emotions/information under control before he loosened his own mental shields, allowing Kid the same courtesy.

The thief squeezed him slightly in response and asked in a low tone, "So, what do we have?"

Conan returned his attention to the building he had been watching. "There's about three guards outside that I can see, maybe one or two more beyond the way we were planning to get in."

"One of those guards on the outside won't have any chance of noticing us," Kid noted, having pulled out a pair of his own binoculars from seemingly nowhere. "The other two..."

"Can you get us in without alerting anyone?"

"My, my, Tantei-kun, just who do you think I am?" Kid countered, a smirk settling comfortably across his features.

"Oh, sorry, my bad," Conan replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"That's alright, you're forgiven," the thief said, blithely ignoring the sarcasm. "Now then," and here Conan felt through the Contract bond as Kid gathered himself, felt the magic running through them both pulse with anticipation as Kid picked him up. The all-too-familiar razor grin stretched across the thief's mouth.

"It's _showtime_."

.:||:.

_Prologue End  
><em>_**Next ****Chapter:** It's Started_

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><p><em>Author Note: <em>Just to clarify in case people are confused - the second half of this takes place sometime in the future of the fic. Thanks for reading!


	2. It's Started

Aaand the first actual chapter, since I feel mean just giving a prologue and running away ahaha;; Also, I fail at writing heist notes, so you will probably see how many ways I can creatively dodge them over the course of this fic ahaha;; Having said that, please enjoy nonetheless! :D

**Warnings:** None.

**Side Notes:** Flowers for my beta Nanaga :3 and to everyone who found the prologue interesting enough to try this chapter too :3

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 1: It's Started<strong>_

_When the snake's messenger arrives,  
><em>_I shall swoop from the heavens  
><em>_to claim the carmine sun._

_-_ _Kaitou __Kid_

Conan glared up at the white piece of card in Hattori's hand as the Osakan teen detective read it aloud for the both of them. Of all the days for that infuriating phantom thief to pick to deliver his notice, it had to be _today_, just when Conan was already exhausted and feeling emotionally drained. He'd been wanting for most of the day for nothing more than to just go home, flop on his bed and ignore the world.

His ire wasn't aimed solely at the thief, though. It was partly Hattori's fault he was feeling this way - seriously, could the two of them not go _anywhere_ without dead bodies falling from the sky? - and even though they'd correctly deduced the murderer in a short amount of time, police procedures and interviews for their reports still took up time. The shrunken teen had been thinking longingly of his bed when another police officer had come running up, waving the notice in the air. So here he was, being roped into deciphering the note along with Hattori, when he really didn't have the energy to deal with Kid's squiggly thinking patterns -

- and had that officer just _winked_ at him?

Before he'd even had time to turn his full attention onto him, the officer - who was probably Kid; was the thief _insane_ to deliver his message himself like that? - had given him a small salute and disappeared. Conan sighed, returning his attention to the discussion going on over his head. It would be pointless to tell anyone about it now, considering there was no sign of the magician-thief anymore. _He's __getting __a __soccer __ball __to __the _face _at __the __next __heist __for __putting __this __whole __thing __on __me __now_, the detective vowed.

A heist for which the details still needed deciphering. With a sigh, Conan tugged on Hattori's pants leg. "Heiji-niichan, is that one of Kid's messages? Can I see?"

"Sure," the other detective said, handing the card (safely tucked into an evidence bag to preserve fingerprints, not that Kid would ever leave any... still, caution never hurt) down to the smaller boy. "Here ya go."

_Snake's __messenger, __snake's __messenger..._ Conan mused, deep in thought. _Some __kind __of __mythology __reference? __He's __being __vaguer __than __usual __if __this __is __meant __to __tell __us __time, __place __AND __target. __I __see __an __arrival __method, __but..._

"Why was this even delivered to Division One?" one of the other officers asked, looking confused. "We deal with homicides, not thefts."

"Could Kid-san be expecting a homicide?" Takagi wondered aloud.

_Considering __Conan-kun __is __probably __going __to __be __there, __it's __not __that __far __of __a __stretch..._ Sato thought to herself, eyeing the small boy staring intently at the card in his hands.

"I doubt it," Conan snorted, drawing everyone's attention. He continued on in an absentminded voice. "That guy's motto is 'No-one Gets Hurt', remember? It's more likely that the stupid thief just wants to play with us." He became aware of the odd looks both Sato and Takagi were giving him and verbally backpedalled. "I - I mean, that's just something I've heard Shinichi-niichan say before, so..." _Wipe __that __smirk __off __your __face, __Hattori!_

"Aaanyway," Hattori cleared his throat, looking towards the other officers. "Th' 'carmine sun' is most likely referrin' ta his target. Ya got any rubies or red-coloured gems on show at th' moment?"

"There's at least two." Surprisingly, it was Takagi who volunteered this information. He flushed slightly at the stares he got in return. "It was in the newspaper this morning. One's at Beika's museum, the Midnight Star Ruby. The other is at..."

"Ikebukuro's," Sato finished. "I think I remember reading about that one. 'Ruby Rose' or something, right?"

"It's the one at Beika," Hattori and Conan chorused. Conan nodded to Hattori for him to explain and the other teen turned to Sato and Takagi.

"Suns are a type o' star, so 'carmine sun' probably means a star ruby, like th' Midnight Star. Not ta mention he talks about th' heavens."

_Heavens... __stars..._ Conan dug out his phone and pulled up an Internet search. _Let's __see... __Damn, __nothing __on __star __names __relating __to __the __phrase __'snake's __messenger'..._

"Oi, Kudo," Hattori whispered, crouching down beside the shrunken detective as the rest of the officers continued debating Kid's notice. "Ya got anythin' yet?"

"No," Conan replied, tapping his thumb gently against his phone. "We've only got the line about the messenger left to tell us the time and date of the heist... I thought it might have something to do with stars, since he mentions them twice in the note, but there's nothing by that name... hmm... stars... constellations..."

"They use constellations for fortune tellin'," Hattori pointed out. "Kazuha was goin' on 'bout hers th' other day. There's a snake in th' Chinese zodiac."

Conan frowned, thinking. _True, __but __this __isn't __a __snake, __it's __its __'messenger'... __hang __on, __there's __more __than __one __type __of __zodiac!_ He quickly typed out another search.

"Has anyone called Inspector Nakamori? Perhaps he's gotten further in cracking the puzzle. He might have more information."

"Would he tell us though? It's really not our jurisdiction..."

"And we still have no idea when he's coming..."

"Midnight, November 30th."

Conan's matter-of-fact statement drew everyone's attention. He held up the note in one hand, his cellphone in the other. "The snake's messenger in Kid's message refers to the Japanese name for Ophiuchus. It's a non-official zodiac sign between Scorpio and Sagittarius and its constellation appears between November 30th and December 18th."

Hattori's fist connected gently with his other hand in an _'I __see!_' gesture. "So th' time when th' snake's messenger will arrive is th' start o' November 30th, tha' is, midnight!"

"Yeah," Conan nodded.

"That's only a few days away..."Sato mused. "We should let Inspector Nakamori know... I'll go inform Inspector Megure."

_You __just __don't __want __to __risk __getting __one __of __Inspector __Nakamori's __infamous __rants_, Conan deadpanned. He tugged on Hattori's pant's leg with a yawn, not entirely faked. "Heiji-niichan, can we go home now? I have homework to do..."

As the two ambled away, saying their goodbyes to the others, Hattori looked down at the shrunken detective and grinned. "So Kudo, ya get ta be around for a midnight heist? Ain't tha' past ya bedtime?"

"Shut up, Hattori."

"Although, it's appropriate, given it's th' witchin' hour an' all -"

"Shut _up_, Hattori."

The Osakan teen just laughed.

.:||:.

_November 30th, 12:17am:_

Conan rocked back and forth on his heels, hands tucked into his armpits in a futile attempt to keep warm. He was mentally grumbling at the world in general and one white-clad phantom thief in particular, who had just _had_ to hold this damn heist at midnight when it was almost winter and who had such a penchant for exiting via the roof that the detective had set up base there. It was _cold_ up here, dammit.

It was partially his own fault, he supposed. He could have just stayed downstairs, in the warmth, along with the rest of the Task Force assigned to catching Kid and watched as they tried and failed to catch the thief with their 'dogpile on the bandit' technique for the upteenth time. Conan couldn't even be sure that Kid would leave via the roof anyway, which would make his freezing out here entirely not worth it if the thief didn't show up.

But this was Kid, he knew the thief loved to show off and there was an entire crowd of fans down there screaming their encouragement for him. Surely he'd use his hang-glider to get away? And waiting out here in the cold was a lot less effort than chasing after Kid inside. He had no desire to be glued to the floor and covered in confetti like the Task Force had on the previous heist. Conan was _tired_. He wanted nothing more than to get this confrontation over and done with so he could get some rest. Not that that would solve anything, according to Haibara, but at least in the short term he'd feel better.

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned to get a better look. He hadn't heard the roof access door open! Piercing blue eyes followed a shadow as it slunk around the edge of a container. Was that Kid? If it was, the magician-thief was acting strangely...

Conan lost sight of the shadow and edged after it, fingering his tranquiliser dart-watch. He peeked over the top of another, smaller container to see a man dressed in black looking around cautiously, holding a gun. Conan froze. _Could __it __be __one __of __Them? __Why __would __They __be __here? __What's __he __looking __for?_

He abandoned his watch in favour of crouching down and peering around the side of the container instead. _Should __I __kick __a __soccer __ball __at __him? __Or... _One hand crept to his shoes, blue light flashing around his hand before his fingers even reached the dial.

A white gloved hand grasped his wrist firmly, making the blue sparks disappear instantly, while another gloved hand covered his mouth. "Ssssh," Kid whispered in his ear. "That's not a good idea at the moment, Tantei-kun."

"Kid!" Conan hissed when the hand on his mouth was removed, twisting to look at the thief hiding with him. "What are you -?"

Kid held a finger to his lips with a small grin and gave a silent show of clearing his throat. When the phantom thief's voice rang out, clear and mocking, it seemed to come from every direction at once. "I see you decided to show up after all, Snake."

The man in black spun around so fast Conan was amazed the guy didn't trip over his own two feet. He didn't recognise the face at all as the light of the moon illuminated it, but Kid seemed to know who he was. Judging by the way Kid's hand had tightened ever-so-slightly on Conan's wrist, it also seemed they weren't on good terms.

Apparently, the man Kid called Snake couldn't figure out where the phantom thief was either. He'd settled for standing in one place, trying to look every which way at the one time. "Well, you practically invited me with that notice you sent. Why don't you make this easy for both of us and just hand it over?"

"And let you shoot me?" Conan thought he heard Kid snort derisively, but the sound was so faint that he couldn't really be sure. His mind was racing, trying to figure out just what was going on. _Shoot __him?_

"I did say it would be easy for both of us."

Kid laughed then, making the man visibly stiffen with anger. "Sorry, Snake, but it's much more fun to make things harder for everyone. Besides, this isn't the one you're after." By now, Snake was facing the other way, having apparently decided that the magician-thief was hiding in the shadows at the other end of the roof.

"You expect me to believe that?" the black-clad man started to growl, but he had barely gotten halfway through the sentence before Kid had swept Conan up in a gripping one-armed hold, darted the few steps remaining to the railing lining the roof and hopped over it into empty space. Bullets ricocheted off the metal railing behind them as they dropped. Conan could hear Snake's frustrated bellow of "KID!" behind them.

They free-fell, wind rushing up in their faces as windows flickered past. Conan could see the ground hurtling up at them at amazing speed. "Kid...!" _Now __would __be __a __really __good __time __to __do __something!_

"Hold on tight, Tantei-kun!" Conan felt the jolt of the thief's hang-glider opening, felt them gain some advantage over gravity as their descend slowed and evened out. He could hear a chuckle in Kid's voice as the thief continued, "Up, up and away!"

...Conan was going to hit him. Hard. Where it hurt.

...Well, after he landed, that was. The shrunken teen didn't have a death-wish.

Despite the normalcy of Kid's voice, Conan could feel the thief's heart against his back beating quite rapidly. Conan wasn't sure if it was from fear or just adrenaline left over from the heist and the fall. His own heart was thundering like a herd of horses in full gallop (no sane human should ever want to see the ground coming up at them like that, at that speed) and he was fairly sure the thief could feel it against his arm.

He was in the wrong position to try and turn to see Kid's face even though this close, that monocle and hat wouldn't do a thing to protect his identity. Conan was also aware Kid was steering one-handed and he didn't want to rock the boat, so to speak. Instead, the detective focused on calming his raging heart down. He didn't think Kid would appreciate being covered in blue sparks, not to mention it would raise a lot of questions he didn't want to answer. Not to Kid, anyway.

Speaking of questions, there were a few the shrunken detective was absolutely burning to ask the white-clad thief. Like, who on earth was that man, how did he know Kid, what was this thing they both seemed to be after and - most importantly - was Kid involved somehow with the Black Organisation? Because if he was fighting them too - if he was fighting _alone_ - if they could help each other -

But Kid didn't seem inclined to talk, so Conan didn't either as they swooped over a residential area to land in what Conan quickly recognised as Beika Park. The thief set him down lightly on the ground and hopped back a few paces to put distance between them. "You should be able to make your way home from here," Kid murmured. "I couldn't risk landing directly at the Mouri's."

Conan stared up at the thief. His back was to the moon, casting Kid's face into shadow so that all the detective could see was the gleaming edge of a monocle. "Kid, who was that?"

The thief shrugged. "Just an old acquaintance." He twirled his hand around and suddenly something gleamed within his fingers. "We differ on some things." Kid half turned, his face still in shadow but the object in his fingers now gleaming bright in the moonlight as the thief held the target of that night's heist up. He examined it for a moment before bringing his hand down. While Conan couldn't see the disappointment flash in the other's eyes, he could and did see it in the slight slump of the thief's shoulders. It was quickly hidden with a shrug and before Conan could do anything, Kid had tossed the gem at him.

He caught it easily and looked at it. "It's beautiful..." He hadn't really gotten a good look at it before, but it really was. The deep red hue of the ruby made the large, six pointed star across its surface stand out all the more. He looked up at Kid, piercing blue eyes attempting to read the thief. "But it's not what you're looking for, is it?"

A chuckle. "What makes you think I'm looking for anything, Tantei-kun?"

"You told that man - your '_acquaintance_'," sarcasm dripped off the word, complete with air quotes, "that this wasn't what he was looking for. It implies you are also looking for something."

"Bravo, Tantei-kun... But have you considered that I just like the shiny?"

Conan had no intentions of playing _that_ game. "Why was he trying to kill you?" he asked bluntly.

The thief stilled. "I told you, we differ on things. Don't go there, Tantei-kun," and in this there was a real note of warning, a seriousness that the thief very rarely showed. _Don't __take __this __warning __lightly, __Tantei-kun._ "Pandora's Box isn't something children should be opening. I'd hate to see one of my favourite critics get hurt."

"Kid!" Conan growled, frustrated at the thief's deliberate dodging, exhausted beyond measure and trying to understand but Kid _was __refusing __to __help, _to give him the pieces of the puzzle (or really, _any_ of the puzzle pieces) that he needed to _figure __this __out_ and now the thief _was __turning __away, _was _leaving_ and he still hadn't _told __him __anything __-_

The feeling he'd been trying to hold in ever since that first spike of terror and adrenaline at the sight of the black-clad man and their fall from the museum roof grew to a level where he couldn't contain it anymore, fuelled by waves of frustration. It _pulsed _out of him, sending up sparks in the air immediately around him. Kid backed up a step in confusion and for a split-second Conan thought he felt - something - from the thief, the tiniest of echoes.

Then the backlash caught up with him, exhaustion draining the energy from him completely and he collapsed on the spot. Kid's worried shout was the last thing he heard before he blacked out entirely.

_Damn it, Kid, I'm just trying to understand._

_.:||:._

_Chapter End  
><em>_**Next ****Chapter:** Sparks of Blue_

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><p><strong>Author Rambles: <strong>Ahhhhhh Hattori's accent, I don't even. And FFnet is annoyingly eating the spaces between my italics :\ Anyway, thanks for reading! :D And a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all you who celebrate it; for those who don't, have an awesome week! \(^o^)/


	3. Sparks of Blue

Hi~! Happy New Year! :D

Sorry this is a bit later than promised, I actually lost track of what day it was -_-" Thanks and cookies to my beta Nanaga for putting up with everything I spam her with) and also to everyone who read, reviewed, faved or alerted this fic! Hopefully this chapter will explain a few things? Please enjoy :)

**Warnings:** None? Slight OOC-ness? I've never written Ai before, so I don't know... I think she's supposed to be more sadistic lol Also, the timing and arrangement of events is a bit awkward and might be confusing, but it's the best I could do.

**Side Notes:** For the time being I'm aiming for weekly updates, at least until I run out of the chapters I've already written. Anything after that is subject to the demands of life and my ongoing battle against lethargy orz

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 2: Sparks of Blue<strong>_

Ai Haibara, genius scientist (_evil_ genius sometimes fit better in Conan's opinion) turned grade-schooler, looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading and raised an eyebrow at her fellow shrunken classmate. Conan had immediately made a beeline for the couch after greeting Professor Agasa at the door, flopping down on it face first with a deep sigh.

"Kudo-kun, is there a reason you are trying to become one with the couch?" she inquired calmly, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. The detective mumbled something into the couch. "Pardon?"

Conan groaned and turned his head in order to be more coherent. "I said, I challenge you to have the same day I just did and not want to hide the minute you can. I dare you the same _week_." Professor Agasa came back into the room with some snacks and two mugs of hot chocolate, one of which he set down in front of the prone boy. "Thanks, Professor," Conan said gratefully, dragging himself up into a sitting position. Agasa also took a seat, only for Ai to swipe the other mug of hot chocolate out of his hands before the older man could drink it.

"You're not going to get any thinner with this. You can have juice instead," she told him. Agasa looked on mournfully as his mug joined Ai's at the other end of the coffee table, out of reach. "Kudo-kun, you were fine when I saw you at school earlier. What happened?"

"Sonoko," Conan groaned. "She came home with Ran and had heard all about her _beloved __Kid-sama_ dropping me home the other night. I couldn't get rid of her!"

There had been only so many times he could say he didn't remember any of it, that he'd fallen asleep on the roof (a slight stretching of the truth there) and woken up in his bed in the Mouri Detective Agency the next day, before he had started to wish Kid had just left him on the ground in the park, safety be damned.

That would have made Ran worry, though. She'd seen him in Kid's arms as the thief had swooped off into the night the day of the heist, and only the strict non-violent code the thief was well known for had held back (but not stopped) the intense worry for her young charge. Ran had rushed straight home and according to her, Conan had been curled up on the couch inside her father's office, a note from the thief on the table next to him:

_'Tantei-kun __fell __asleep __on __the __way __home. __Make __sure __he __gets __some __rest~! __- __Kaitou __Kid_'

Considering he had fainted right in front of the thief, the note was deceptively calm. Conan supposed he should be thanking the thief for not inciting Ran's worry further. If she'd heard he'd collapsed, he would have been confined to bed for at least the next day, with a possible doctor's visit. Not that the cause of his fainting was anything a doctor could help with...

A part of him hoped he hadn't scared the thief too badly. He had a vague, hazy memory of a panicked voice calling his name before being hauled up into strong arms and a reassuring warmth. Well, Kid seemed to keep tabs on him, so if he was up to his usual tricks he'd know that Conan was fine now.

...Since when did he care if that idiot thief was worried about him, anyway? It was his fault he'd had to suffer Sonoko's fan-girling that afternoon!

"What a responsible thief we seem to have," Ai commented dryly. Conan sent her a deadpan look and seemed on the verge of a retort when Agasa interrupted.

"Shinichi-kun, do you think Kid saw the sparks before you collapsed?" he asked worriedly.

Conan rested his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I really don't have a clue. He certainly _reacted_ and stepped back, but... I don't know, the pulse was pretty powerful, he could have been knocked back by it. He didn't seem to notice them earlier when we were with the guy on the roof." He eyed Haibara. "And before you lecture me, it just kind of burst out of my control. It wasn't on purpose. I was tired." The detective rubbed his face again wearily. "Still am, actually."

"Kudo-kun, you need to stop trying to use your power, you know it isn't supposed to work like that!" The mini scientist set her mug down with a _clunk_, narrowing her eyes at the detective opposite her.

"I _wasn't_ trying to use anything, I told you it was an accident!" Conan shot back. "I can barely do anything with it anyway! Like I'd go endangering everyone around me by essentially playing with fire!" His head dropped back into his hands. "This whole thing is just - insane. I'd have a hard time believing any of it was real, except for, well, _this_." Blue light crackled across a casually waved hand for a split second.

"_Kudo-kun_," Ai said warningly.

He ignored her and continued talking. "What most people call 'magic' is supposed to be just smoke and mirrors, convincing tricks pulled off by skilled practitioners to create illusions. It is _not_ supposed to be real, I am _not _supposed to have evidence it exists... and it is _not_ supposed to be something I have!" His shoulders slumped. "And all it does is make things more complicated. As if I didn't have enough to deal with already."

Conan had never believed in magic. His was a world of facts and deductions, lies and truth, understanding and explaining mysteries - not creating more of them. Then he'd followed those two men in black at Tropical Land, and a pill named Apotoxin 4869 had forced him to rethink his entire stance on the matter.

Not that the apotoxin was anything magical: weird and freaky for being capable to literally regress someone's age by a decade, sure, but at least weird and freaky _science_ was all it was. Haibara had explained the basics behind it to him once (although he was pretty sure she'd devolved into extensive sciencebabble by the end on purpose, possibly in revenge for something he'd said earlier) and while he didn't understand it all, it still seemed feasible. He'd adjusted to living as Conan Edogawa (to a degree that rather frightened him when he thought about it too hard) and it had been something he could deal with.

The blue sparks had appeared a few months ago, or rather, that was when they became obvious enough to draw Conan's attention. There had been signs of it building long before that - flashes of blue in the corner of his vision, getting shocked by static electricity _far_ too much considering he knew how to stop it from happening - that he'd simply dismissed or not even noticed in the first place. Then he'd tried to stun a suspect with one of his tranquiliser darts, only to zap him instead. He'd asked Agasa when on earth the professor had installed a taser in his watch and to _kindly_ let him know if his gadgets got updated, lest Conan end up killing someone out of ignorance.

Agasa had been exceptionally confused. No, he hadn't installed a taser at all. No, the watch wasn't supposed to do anything at all like that. What was Shinichi talking about?

The demonstration hadn't gone very well. Dart? Check. Sparks? Nothing. Conan had stared at his watch in confusion, wondering if he'd just imagined the whole thing from exhaustion. He hadn't noticed Ai was also in the room, studying him with a pensive frown on her face.

After that, he'd catch split-second glimpses of sparks in the air around him or on him, or feel tingles in his chest at random times, usually when he was feeling upset or angry. Things finally came to a head one day at school. Conan had gotten exceptionally frustrated at his whole life and his investigation (which was going _nowhere_) and had excused himself from the group - they were great kids, really, and they really didn't deserve him taking his frustration out on them. So luckily none of them were around to witness his shock a few minutes later when a series of azure sparks raced over his hands while he was glaring at them in irritation. He'd jumped in shock, eyes widening, but the sparks still didn't disappear. In fact, they had multiplied, until his hands were encased in a loosely woven net of lightning.

"It seems things might be more serious than I had first thought," a voice had come from behind him, doing nothing for his poor heart, which was already on the verge of a heart attack. He had looked up, panic stricken - _ohgodohgod __how __on __earth __am __I __supposed __to __explain __this?_ - only to relax a tiny fraction when he saw that it was Haibara. He was _not_ going to think about the surprise on her face. She _had_ to know what was going on!

"Haibara, what the hell is _this_?" he had demanded shrilly, thrusting both hands (and the net of sparks arcing across them) towards her. His mind had miraculously put aside the insane notion that _his __hands __were __sparking _and focused on her earlier words. "What do you mean, 'more serious than you first thought'?"

"Kudo-kun, you need to calm down." Ai had remained at a wary distance, eyes focused on his hands.

"_Calm __down?_" Conan laughed, a slight edge of panic to his voice.

"The sparks will stay there until you calm down," she told him. "So you need to get a hold of yourself. _Breathe._ Panicking really will not help at the moment."

Somehow the detective had calmed down and just as Ai had said, the sparks had died down as well. They'd taken most of his strength along with them, leaving his legs feeling weak and unable to support him. The mini scientist helped him over to a seat where he could sit, shaking like he'd been plunged into ice water.

"H-haibara, what w-was th-that?" Conan asked, teeth chattering. She _tsk_-ed and held a hand to his forehead to check his temperature, _tsk_-ed again and reached for his wrist, looking at her watch to time his pulse.

"I'm not sure. What happened?"

His pulse was apparently fine, judging by her slight relief. His story soon sent her expression back into a pensive frown, however. "Kudo-kun, I... need to check some things first. I would not want to give you bad data, after all. You'll most likely be feeling weak for a while; go to sick bay and rest. Come to my lab after school; I'm going to call the Professor now to come and pick me up."

"Does this have something to do with the apotoxin?" Conan had demanded. His chills were gone, but now all he wanted to do was sleep. Ai hesitated and then shrugged.

"I'll be able to tell you later. Now, _rest_. Or I'll make sure to stab you a few unnecessary times with the needle next time I require a blood sample," she added with a glare, seeing the shrunken detective about to open his mouth to object.

"Evil woman," she heard Conan mutter behind her as she left, but she was too preoccupied to send another death glare his way.

_I had never thought I would see THAT again... Kudo-kun, just how many of Their projects do you intend to get caught up in?_

.:||:.

As instructed, Conan had made his way to Professor Agasa's house after school. He'd already rung Ran from school to let her know where he'd be and by the blessing of some god up there the Shounen Tantei had decided not to accompany him to the professor's house today.

Ai was typing something up on her computer when he entered the lab and merely waved a hand towards the bed for him to take a seat. The detective had done so carefully; his legs were still feeling vaguely like jelly even after a three hour nap in sick bay. The steady _clack-clack-clack_ of the keys as Ai typed was hypnotic and he had found himself almost drifting off again before the abrupt silence pulled him back to reality. He had looked towards the miniature scientist, only to find her looking back at him steadily, hands resting in her lap. "Haibara?"

"Kudo-kun..." she started, a strange look on her face. "I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, so I'll just say it bluntly. You have magic."

"Magic," the detective repeated flatly. She nodded.

_What._

Silence stretched for a few seconds as he stared at her. "...You're joking, right?"

Ai had given him a flat look. "I am perfectly serious." She glared at him when Conan raised an eyebrow at her in a _seriously-you-expect-me-to-believe-that-I-know-you're-pulling-my-leg_ fashion.

"Haibara, you of all people should know magic doesn't exist, right? And you're seriously trying to tell me now that I've... caught it somehow?" Conan had wondered if this was all just some huge practical joke that the diminutive scientist was trying to play on him, although it was unusually non-sadistic for her.

She sighed. "It isn't a disease, Kudo-kun. And I agree, 'magic' is perhaps not the best term for it. But it is a lot shorter than calling it 'energy manipulation', which is what it really is."

"Energy manipulation...?" Conan repeated.

"Yes. While I was working for the Organisation, I heard talk of another project that they were researching at the time. It had nothing to do with the apotoxin research at all, so I don't know much about it, but it seems that the aim of the project was to mimic a naturally-occurring phenomenon in the human genome that allowed a person to manipulate the energy of the world around them."

"So... something like telekinesis?" the detective hazarded a guess.

"Among other things. Many other things. The potential this research had was enormous, but there were a number of problems with it, one of which was that the person themselves could not control their..._ability_. There had to be a second, compatible person who directed the energy. Rather like a battery and a conductor, with the first person providing all the power and the second person guiding it."

"I see..." Conan frowned. "Wait, you said this was based on -?"

"Yes, on a natural occurrence. There are people born with the ability to access this kind of power, just as there are people born with the ability to direct it. Very, very few of them actually ever manage to gain access, however. A good thing for you detectives, otherwise you'd be trying to solve impossible murders all of the time," she added with an amused smile. "In any case, the name they gave to these 'batteries' was 'Contractors'. That is about all I know on the subject."

"So," the detective said slowly, thinking as he spoke, "You think I'm one of these people? A Contractor."

"It would explain the unusual events of earlier, wouldn't you say? It makes sense if you think of the blue sparks as a form of lightning - the physical manifestation of too much energy building up in one place. They seem to appear when you have a build-up of emotions, like anger, so I'm assuming that without any conscious control on your behalf they are linked to your emotions."

"Why now, though?" Conan asked. "Assuming I do somehow have this ability, and that I'm one of those 'very few' natural occurrences seeing as I'm not a part of the Black Organisation's other project... why is this only happening now, in the past year or so?" He paused, eyes sharpening. "Unless this _does_ have something to do with the apotoxin?"

Ai drummed her fingers on the computer desk. "It's highly likely the apotoxin only acted as a trigger, nothing more. It was designed to interact with the cells of the body, not the mind. You must have had some form of latent ability and the apotoxin caused such an upheaval to your system that it 'unlocked' it, so to speak."

"Ack," was the only comment Conan made, taking off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "This whole thing is insane. But I saw it with my own eyes, so I also can't deny the evidence... I just wish that the explanation was, I don't know, a bit more rational? I feel like I've stepped into a sci-fi movie."

"It _is_ rational from a certain point of view," Ai pointed out. "The human brain is a vastly unexplored territory and we've yet to discover more than a tenth of what it can do. If a drug that makes us like this," she waved a hand between them, "can exist, then who can say that things like this can't?"

"Can you fix it?" Conan demanded. "I can't go around zapping people like a malfunctioning mosquito light. If I can't control it, then I'm putting everyone around me in danger. Again."

"It's not something you can 'fix', Kudo-kun," Ai replied. "The apotoxin acts like a poison to the system, so it's possible to reset the body to it's original state. This ability _is_ your natural state, so there isn't a reset button. It might be possible to block it, but... that's not my area at all. Plus, my time is already taken up with trying to find a cure for the apotoxin. If you want me to try to 'fix' your newest problem, I won't be able to spare the time for the cure. It's your choice."

There was a long silence, which Conan had finally broken with a heavy sigh. "Stick with the cure," the shrunken detective replied wearily. "I'll figure this one out myself somehow."

.:||:.

"Kudo-kun, you're going to drop your hot chocolate."

"Shinichi-kun? Are you alright?"

Conan blinked and shook himself out of memory lane to find Professor Agasa looking worriedly at him and Haibara looking bored. "Sorry, I'm alright, I just spaced out for a few minutes there," he reassured the old man.

The professor nodded. "I'll go and get some more hot chocolate. Ai-kun, would you like some more?"

"Yes, thank you," Ai replied, holding out her mug. As the professor bustled away to his kitchen, she turned to the dark-haired boy. "You looked more like you were falling asleep," she commented dryly. Conan resisted sticking his tongue out at her and thus acting his apparent age and settled for a deadpan glare instead. She ignored it. "Contractors aren't supposed to use their own power. Every time you attempt to control it, it drains you of energy, so it's no wonder you collapsed last night with that display of yours. If you keep this up, you _will_ kill yourself, Kudo-kun! You need to stop!"

"I _need_ to be able to control it," Conan snapped back. "I really don't care what happens to myself, but I can't keep putting everyone around me in such danger. Conan exists because Shinichi is a danger to everyone I love. I can't let Conan become a danger too. I can't let him hurt them." His shoulders slumped and his voice dropped to an almost inaudible level. "I'll have nothing left, then."

There was an uncomfortable silence after this statement. Rather than trying to find words of comfort, Ai opted for a suggestion instead. "So why don't you find a partner?"

"A what?" Conan stared at her. She sighed.

"Really, Kudo-kun, do you listen to what I tell you? I said there were two types of people who could interact with energy fields - the power source, people like you, and _those __who __can __manipulate __that __power._ I told you the Organisation's research was based on teams of two. Find someone who can channel your power for you and make them your partner!"

"What do you think I've been doing since then?" Conan asked, rolling his eyes. "Except I really don't know what to look for and the odds of finding someone like that are exceptionally small. There is _no __way_ I'd put Ran in that kind of danger, even if I had sensed something and Hattori..." He sighed.

"Kudo-kun?"

He shook his head. "It's just... Hattori knows. About this whole thing."

"You told him?"

"He figured it out and pressured me into explaining everything. It's part of why I was so tired yesterday. Trying to avoid interrogation and then having to explain everything to him - and demonstrate, because this is too crazy to believe without it - just took a lot out of me."

Ai hid a chuckle. "You can't seem to keep secrets from him, can you?"

"It's what happens when you have friends who are good detectives," Conan replied. "Although in his case, it's annoying. He still messes up calling me Conan and he's decided that me having 'magical powers'," he wiggled his fingers in imitation of said powers, "is too good an opportunity to miss. Even when I threatened to fry him." The detective sat back with another sigh. "But he's not... he's completely normal. I can't sense anything from him. Which pretty much kills all my options, because there's not many other people I can trust with this and there's no way I'd go into a partnership with someone I don't trust."

"You've not come across anyone?" Ai asked.

"It's a bit hard when I'm not really sure what I'm looking for," the detective commented dryly. "I've found no-one. Except..."

"Except?" Ai prompted when he didn't continue.

"I think...I felt...something," Conan said slowly, brow scrunched up in thought. "Last night, when I yelled at Kid. The pulse I sent out, there was an echo. From him. A very, very tiny echo, but I'm almost certain I felt it."

"Kid? _Kaitou_ Kid?"

"Yeah. But I don't know!" The detective ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Maybe there's something there, maybe there's not. And even if there _was_, I'm not sure he'd believe me about the whole thing. He'd probably just think it's a trap."

"Isn't the more important question if you can trust him?" the scientist pointed out as Agasa returned with two mugs. It seemed the old man had decided not to risk Ai's wrath again by bringing himself some. "He _is_ a thief after all."

Conan pondered this. He hadn't even considered the point before, which rather argued he trusted the thief unconsciously anyway... which was strangely disturbing, to say the least. But it made sense, when he thought about the fact that he'd never felt in danger in the thief's presence either. What in the many rounds of Kid's 'catch-me-if-you-can' game had sparked _that_?

Plus, with last night's revelation that Kid may be tangling with the Black Organisation and was in potentially just as much danger as himself (perhaps more; at least Conan didn't have people trying to kill him whenever he turned up places), there was a sense of camaraderie there that he couldn't get rid of.

So the question stood: _if_ Kid believed him and _if _he could help him and _if_ the thief was willing to help him (_if_ the thief trusted _him_)... could _he_ trust the thief to help him?

_Maybe. __Probably. __I __don't __know._ But those were still quite a few very, very big 'ifs' that his answer hung on. He _really_ needed to talk to Kid. Somehow. Conan groaned.

"Well, in any case, you'll need to catch him first," Ai pointed out, sipping from her new mug of hot chocolate. "Good luck with that."

.:||:.

Chapter End  
><em><strong>Next <strong>**Chapter:** To Catch A Thief_

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><p><strong>Author Rambles: <strong>Explanation chapter! Hopefully that clears some stuff up for you guys?

I apologise if it was hard to tell when everything was happening: the sort-of-not-flashback caused me a lot of grief to fit it in coherently orz Also, there is something inherently amusing to me about the image of Ai and Shinichi of all people sitting around discussing magic over hot chocolate... I should point out, there _was_ a reason at the time of writing as to why it's Ai who knows about this and is telling Shinichi and not say, Akako (who is very much more suited to the part of discussing 'magic' but it felt kind of random to me to have her pop up now) and that reason is more than what she states here...

...is what I say, but the plot has changed since I originally wrote this chapter, so it may not be relevant any more. If it never comes up in the plot, I'll promise I'll tell you in one of these rambles to make up for it so you at least know what I was thinking :3

Also, Kaito & Kid appearances next chapter! :D


	4. To Catch A Thief

Hello again~ I seem to be updating faster than I'm writing ahaha;; Went to see the new Sherlock Holmes film the other day :D Actually, it was the previous Holmes movie that sparked off my interest in DC (like, actually reading it instead of just 'hmm maybe one day') because I was in such a detective mood hahaha;; Very glad I did though :3

Thanks as always to my lovely beta Nanaga and to everyone who has read, reviewed, faved or alerted this fic~ You're all always appreciated, please remember that :3

**Warnings:** More first time writing canon characters (Hakuba. Oh god, Hakuba. And maybe Kaito.) so maybe OOCness, as always. Oh, and Nakamori's language. Which has been censored for your convenience xD;

Onwards! Please enjoy! \(^o^)/

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 3: To Catch A Thief<strong>_

This was officially getting ridiculous.

It had been a week since he'd talked to Haibara, a week and a day since he'd met the man in black on the top of Beika museum. Only a week and a day since the last heist.

So why, oh why, was he staring at another yet _another_ heist notice from the thief? Did this guy seriously have nothing else to do with his time?

He glared at the offending white piece of card sitting innocently on the coffee table in the agency. Neither Ran nor her father was home at the moment, with Ran out shopping with Sonoko and Kogoro on a minor case that required him to shadow someone. Which left Conan as the only one to deal with the thief's riddles.

...Not that he really minded. The riddles always gave him a good mental workout, which he enjoyed. It was only when he was tired and grumpy that he wasn't in the mood for the thief's antics. Plus, hadn't he been looking for a way to talk to the thief for the past week? Heists were their only point of contact, so he'd accepted that he'd have to somehow stop Kid from escaping long enough to talk to him.

_Easier said than done._ The shrunken detective picked up the card with a handkerchief in case of prints (really, why did he even still hope Kid would leave prints?) and examined the writing:

_'Come play a game with me, Tantei-kun~'_

Conan blinked; the Kid insignia at the bottom grinned up at him. _Wait, that's it...?_ He flipped the card over to check the back and found nothing but a plain expanse of white. The detective turned it back the right way around with a perplexed frown, only for the card to explode in a burst of pink smoke. Conan jumped back with a startled shout, dropping the card and covering his mouth and nose with an arm. _Sleeping gas?_

It dissipated quickly; not sleeping gas, then. He looked around for the piece of card but couldn't find it; instead, lying on the floor was an envelope with 'Tantei-kun' written on the front in what he recognised as Kid's handwriting. Conan picked it up gingerly by a corner. "I really hope he hasn't rigged this one with surprises as well..."

Nothing blew up or burst out at him, however, as he slit the envelope open and pulled out a single sheet of paper. On it was printed a 15x15 grid of assorted black and white squares; beneath that, a list of sentences that seemed to be absolute gibberish at first glance.

Conan grinned. Kid had sent him a cryptic crossword. This was going to be _fun_.

**.:||:.**

Kaito turned a page of his newspaper, humming contentedly at having already filled his morning quota for chaos. Around him, his classmates were plucking the feathers from their clothes in a rather resigned manner, although some were just happy it hadn't been glitter and dye like last time.

"Well, you're certainly getting creative," a voice commented behind him dryly.

The messy haired boy tilted his chair back until he could look at the newcomer upside down. "What, you mean this, Hakuba?" He waved a hand at the aftermath of his boredom. "You have such a poor imagination, this is nothing! If you really want something creative, I'm more than happy to oblige~"

"Spare our classmates the trauma, please," Hakuba said, holding up his hands. "That wasn't what I was talking about, in any case. I meant your latest heist... crossword puzzle. It's quite a change from your usual riddles."

"Seriously, Hakuba? You've only been here a minute and you're already accusing me of being Kid?" Kaito asked incredulously. "That must be some kind of record!" _And none of your obvious hints and barbs are ever going to make me admit it, so you might as well give up now._ He turned back to his newspaper, Poker Face intact and projecting boredom with his lounging pose. "Maybe Kid just thought you needed a break from work or something. All work and no play makes Hakuba a dull detective, after all~" A thoughtful pause. "Except you're already dull, so I guess there's nothing to be done. I doubt even Kid could work that miracle~" A huff from behind him made the self-proclaimed magician grin to himself.

Well, he knew Tantei-kun had enjoyed it, at least. He'd sent one of his doves over the morning after he'd had to take the kid home, just to check he really was okay (_-anguished blue eyes stared at him accusingly before they rolled back, a small body dropping to the ground lifelessly with an audible thump- _) and while he'd reassured himself that yes, Tantei-kun was okay, alive and breathing (_because he couldn't be sure in the darkness, couldn't be sure that he hadn't been hit by a stray bullet during their escape or whether a damp patch was blood or merely dew until he'd made it back to the agency_) and apparently uninjured, he'd still felt a vague uneasiness since then in regards to the small detective. That uneasiness had seen him hanging around after delivering his notice to the Mouri Agency, long after he should have left. But he'd been able to confirm with his own eyes that Tantei-kun was alright and that had lifted a weight off his shoulders that he hadn't even known he'd been carrying. He'd seen the way the boy had lit up at his notice, a far cry from the last time, and he was glad that the kid finally seemed to be back to normal. It made the voice questioning his decision to even let Tantei-kun near the next heist shut up.

He'd had a notion that Snake would turn up last week; he just hadn't thought Tantei-kun would beat him to the roof. When he'd first spotted the boy crouching behind the container he'd had a weird fear-relief moment - fear that someone else, one of his detectives, a _kid_, was _here_ when it was dangerous, but relief that Tantei-kun hadn't decided to demonstrate his usual bull-headed stubbornness and give himself away to that bastard by kicking a soccer ball at him. But they'd gotten away safely (and while he had wanted to draw Snake out a little more, his key priority was that _no-one got hurt_ and that meant getting Tantei-kun out of there, pronto) and he'd dropped the detective off as close to his home as he dared, since Kaito couldn't be sure that he hadn't been followed somehow. Check the gem and toss it back (saved him the trouble of doing it later) because _damn it, _this wasn't the right one either_._

Then Tantei-kun had started demanding answers with a startling intensity, but the magician-thief _couldn't, wouldn't_ give him the answers. He would not get a child involved in all of this. Kaito had been holding his cards too close to his chest now to share them with anyone else, least of all a detective. So he'd hidden behind his Poker Face and turned to leave. Kaito still wasn't really sure what had happened after that, it had happened so fast. One second he had his back to the small detective, half turning back when he heard the desperate plea of his name. Between that second and the next, something in the air had - flexed, was the only word he could think to describe it - knocking Kaito off balance. And then Tantei-kun was crumpling to the ground (_small body sprawled in the cold, wet grass_) and he was moving forward before he knew he'd even finished turning (_oh god don't be dead don't be hurt_) and calling to him to wake up. To his relief, the boy was still breathing and it just seemed like he'd fainted. Kaito had checked him over properly once he'd got the boy back to the empty agency (his night vision was good, but not_ that _good) and found nothing. Maybe he'd just fainted from the stress of the night? Or exhaustion; the kid hadn't been looking too good when he'd delivered his notice...

...Even so, Kaito was _so_ going to get his revenge on the kid detective for scaring the shit out of him twice (_twice!_). Not to mention revenge for making an internationally-wanted criminal feel _guilty_ that he was somehow the reason for the boy's collapse in the first place.

"-ito? KAITO!"

So deep was he immersed in his thoughts that having his name shouted into his ear startled him enough to send him crashing off his chair. He directed a glare up at the culprit from where he was sprawled on the floor. His childhood friend Aoko didn't even have the grace to look the slightest bit apologetic. Hakuba, standing slightly behind her, was trying (and failing, if he was even trying at all) not to smile in amusement. "Ahouko! What was that for?"

"Because Bakaito didn't even realise I'd turned up!" she yelled back. "And you've been ignoring Hakuba for the past five minutes! You can be _so_ rude sometimes!"

"I wasn't ignoring him! He's just so boring I fell asleep listening to him!"

"KAAAAAITOOOOO!"

The blond detective watched in bemusement as the morning's mop-chase quota was filled (quite early too - normally they at least waited until class had actually started). As Kaito flipped around the room, dodging the mop-wielding fury that was Aoko Nakamori, he found himself wondering vaguely how the magician even found the energy to be this annoying so early in the day. Judging by his antics as Kid, however (and there was _no way_ Kaito was ever going to convince him he _wasn't_ the infamous 1412, there was just that small matter of evidence that Hakuba needed to back up his theory) the magician was just as annoying at any time of the day _or_ night.

He'd been meaning to demand answers on why Kid had suddenly decided to carry the Edogawa boy off, but Kaito had stonewalled every time. And somehow, Hakuba didn't think he'd be getting any answers during a mop chase either... Perhaps he should go and talk to Conan Edogawa instead?

Just as Hakuba had made plans to check on Edogawa within the next few days, Kaito landed on his desk with a massive grin and proceeded to dye his hair blue with a snap of the fingers before cartwheeling off again, leaving the formerly-blond detective to duck hurriedly under Aoko's wild swing.

"Sorry, Hakuba-kun!" she called over her shoulder, racing after her friend.

And it wasn't even first period yet. Hakuba sighed. _It's going to be a very long day._

_**.:||:.**_

_It's going to be a very long night_, Hakuba found himself thinking again, not for the first time in the past five days, as Nakamori-keibu strode past bellowing orders to his men. The clues in Kid's puzzle-note had been divided between his Task Force, himself and the Edogawa boy and had taken a combined effort of a day and a half to decode. In the end, the note had indicated that the thief intended to steal the Sunshine Drop at 9pm on the Saturday of that same week. Hakuba had found himself caught up in the mad scramble of preparations and still had yet to find time to talk to Edogawa about the _last_ heist, despite now having a perfectly reasonable context (since Kid had sent him a personal invite this time around, after all) that allowed him to ask such questions. He'd been planning to catch the boy for a few minutes to talk at the heist tonight, but as his faithful pocket watch ticked down the seconds towards Kid's arrival time there was still no sign of Conan Edogawa. The blond detective wondered if the boy was going to come at all... although really, the madhouse that was Kid's heists was really no place for a young boy at all.

"WHO THE #$% ARE YOU? GET LOST!"

Nakamori-keibu's deafening roar broke through Hakuba's internal musings. The blond detective turned in the direction of the shouting to see a dark-haired young man around his own age trying desperately to placate the irate Inspector. A red mark already marred his cheek, proof that he had made it past the Task Force's line only minutes previously.

"Sir, I'm Shinichi Kudo, a detective. I came to offer my help with the Kid heist -"

"I DON'T NEED MORE INTERFERING BRATS!"

Hakuba had a feeling that the man was referring to him with the phrase 'interfering brat' and felt a bit miffed. He'd had more success in stopping Kid than the Inspector ever did! Still, that was a minor issue. More importantly -

"Shinichi Kudo? As in the Great Detective of the East?" Hakuba had threaded his way through the crowd (all of whom were trying to back _away_ from the confrontation) to end up at Nakamori-keibu's side when he spoke, studying the high school detective in front of him as he did so. The teen bore a striking resemblance to Kuroba in both appearance and voice, albeit neater and quieter, making Hakuba instantly suspicious. _But no, surely Kid wouldn't be _that _obvious?_ Hakuba thought, then dismissed it. Kid liked to pull stunts bordering on the audacious and outrageous - it was completely possible he might turn up in a disguise like this. There was something else about the teen that made him feel familiar... something the blond detective couldn't quite put his finger on. "I've seen your picture in the papers."

"Yes, that's me. And you would be Saguru Hakuba, also a detective. I believe you met my cousin, Conan Edogawa, at the Detective Koushien? He told me all about it." Kudo held out a hand in greeting, which Hakuba shook. _Ah, that's what it is._ Kudo looked like an older version of Conan... which made some sense if they were related.

"Conan Edogawa is your cousin?" Hakuba asked. Then, belatedly remembering he had wanted to talk to Conan, he added, "Do you know if he is coming tonight?"

Kudo shook his head. "No, he's got a cold and couldn't make it, poor kid. Actually, that's why I'm here - I've been away working on cases, but I came back for a short time and Conan asked me to come tonight in his place. He was really hoping to make it, since he got a personal invite from Kid himself, after all, but... well, I was free and he needs rest."

"Well, we don't need your help, so go home," Nakamori barked, having spotted something else that needed his attention. "YOU! GET IN POSITION!"

Shinichi winced as the Inspector strode off. _I think his shouts are even louder now my ears are on a level with his mouth_. He'd never really thought there were inconveniences to being his normal size, but, well, there you were. "Do you think he means it?"

"If you stay out of his notice until Kid arrives in," Hakuba checked his watch, "eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds, then it should be fine. You can stand with me; it would be a pleasure to talk to the famous Great Detective of the East." He took Kudo firmly by the elbow (if this _was_ Kid, he wasn't going to let him slip off!) and steered him over by a column out of the way of the hurried preparations.

Shinichi, on his side of things, let himself be led along. He was still feeling a tiny bit tired and sore from his transformation less than an hour earlier and he was going to get a lot _more_ tired and sore trying to catch Kid long enough to talk. He'd begged Haibara for an antidote for the simple reason that he'd have a better chance of keeping up with Kid in his adult form. There was another reason, which he had also explained to Haibara after much prodding - he wanted Kid to form a partnership with _Shinichi_, not Conan. In all his time as Conan, Kid had never treated him as a child and had always spoken to him as an equal, but it was one thing to see a child as an equal on a game field, a completely different one when on a battlefield - and if the Black Organisation was involved (as they seemed to be) then it _would_ be a battlefield. It would be easier (maybe) to convince Kid (and his 'No-One Gets Hurt' policy) to let him in despite the danger if he was an adult rather than a child. He hoped. There was a chance Kid would just laugh and brush him off like last time until the next heist.

It irked Shinichi a bit to think that he _needed_ the thief this time. He couldn't afford to lose but Kid had every reason to refuse. If the phantom thief wouldn't help him -

_Hey, you still need to confirm whether or not he even has the channelling ability_, Shinichi reminded himself. _Worry about everything else after that._

Hakuba was watching maybe-Kuroba-maybe-Kudo as the detective remained steeped in his thoughts. His first observation was that Kudo was incredibly, almost painfully, thin and a shade paler than a healthy person should be. His second was that there was a quiet, restless energy around the other boy tonight, as though he were nervous. _Odd._ "Are you alright?"

Kudo blinked at him owlishly before registering the question. "I'm fine," he said politely. "Just a bit tired, that's all."

"You seem nervous, Kudo-san," Hakuba observed. "Why?"

"I -" _Wait, what? He's been eyeing me suspiciously since he first came over..._Understanding hit Shinichi like a brick as he mentally reviewed the blonde's behaviour over the past few minutes and he groaned inwardly. _Don't tell me he thinks I'm Kid!_ Hakuba posed a major potential roadblock to his plans if the blond decided to interfere and get in his way.

Warning bells suddenly clanged in Shinichi's mind and the hairs on the back of his neck rose. Someone was watching him, someone other than Hakuba who was still staring at him with suspicion in his eyes. Ignoring the other detective, Shinichi swung around and searched the throng of people, but couldn't find anyone out of the ordinary. _Who was that?_

"Kudo-san?" Hakuba asked cautiously, placing a hand on Kudo's shoulder and feeling the boy jump slightly under his touch. "Is something wrong?"

The other teen looked at him for a few seconds and then shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong... just paranoia, I guess." _I'm pretty sure there was MORE than one person watching me... One's probably Kid, considering he invited Conan and got me for the first time instead, and I showed up at the last possible minute. Hopefully the others are just curious onlookers..._

Hakuba nodded, not really believing the weak excuse. His hand still on Kudo's shoulder, the blond checked his pocket watch. "Four minutes and fifteen seconds until nine o'clock. If you would stay with me until then, Kudo-san? I doubt Nakamori-keibu will throw you out if you're with me."

_Four minutes of putting up with his suspicions?_ Shinichi mused. He had really wanted to check around, but it looked like he didn't have a choice but to stay here. At least when Kid finally did appear it would be obvious to the blonde he wasn't the thief and he could slip away to find the real one.

"Thank you," he thus said, and turned to survey the room. "I'm afraid I didn't get a chance to review the information regarding this heist. The jewel Kid is after is the Sunshine Drop?"

"Yes. It's a deep yellow diamond belonging to the Kuramura family's private collection, but it's on display here at the museum for the next two weeks... or at least, it's supposed to be, unless Kaitou Kid manages to steal it tonight."

"Two minutes, everyone! Stay sharp!" came Nakamori's yell.

**.:||:.**

Kid peered down through the grate, watching the two detectives. He was far enough away that he couldn't hear precisely what they were saying even with his exceptional hearing, only the general tone of their voices. Hakuba was however standing at the right angle for Kid to be able to read his lips, although the other teen standing with him had his back to the thief, leaving him with only half the conversation. From what he could tell, Hakuba clearly thought the other teen was suspicious in some way and if Kaito knew Hakuba's knee-jerk reactions as well as he thought he did, then he thought the other guy was Kid. _Trust Hakuba to get it completely wrong_, he giggled to himself. _I pity the guy he's interrogating..._

Amusingly enough, it seemed his dark-haired companion had also figured out what the blonde detective was thinking and was taking it in resigned, though polite, exasperation if Kaito was reading his tone and body posture correctly. _He was another detective, wasn't he? _Kaito wondered to himself. The magician-thief had heard the teen introduce himself as Shinichi Kudo, which rang a vague bell in the back of his head. _Wasn't he the guy who was always in the papers until a year ago?_ _He tends to work on murders...Well, well, well. _A broad grin, Kid's trademark grin, stretched across his face in the gloom of the vent he was hiding in. _Coming after a 'mere' thief now, Meitantei? It seems I've attracted another detective... I hope he can make this interesting._

Later, tomorrow, a week from now, Kaito would remember that thought and curse himself to the seven hells for ever tempting Fate by thinking it.

But for now, he merely made a note to keep an eye on his new detective - he was an unknown quantity, after all - and went through a final check for his own preparations and gadgets. Satisfied everything was in place and ready, he checked his watch and silently counted down the final seconds. _Ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one..._

_Showtime!_

**.:||:.**

Shinichi lurched to attention as a hissing noise filled the air. He'd been drifting off while Hakuba had made small talk, which didn't bode well for the rest of the night. If he was tired _now_, how on earth would he be up for chasing the thief? Or even catching him? Then the problem would become _keeping_ the thief there while he talked. All of this was going to require using his power, much to his resignation. Haibara had death-glared him when he'd outlined his plan to her earlier, but had restrained herself to a muttered, "It's your funeral."

Pink smoke was pouring from the vents around the room. _Sleeping gas?_ Shinichi wondered, holding an arm up to block his mouth and nose. While people were stumbling away from the clouds of smoke, another _bang!_ pulled everyone's attention back to the display case in the centre of the room. Only it was no longer just the display case and the ring of police guarding it.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Kid announced gleefully, holding out his hands. With a flourish, a glittering large yellow gem appeared in one hand, which he held up for them all to see. "As promised, I have come to take the Sunshine Drop, and it is now mine." He tipped his hat. "A pleasant evening to all of you!" And with that, the white-clad thief neatly backflipped off of the glass case out of reach of the nearby policemen who had just started to recover from their shock.

"KID!" Nakamori bellowed. "GET YOUR #$#!%& ASS BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Kid's mocking laugher echoed down the hall he had darted down a few seconds earlier. Nakamori growled. "AFTER HIM!"

Shinichi was surprised that no-one got injured in the stampede that followed. But, he supposed, the Kid Task Force _had_ been doing this for a rather long time, so they had probably worked out ways to get around without injuring themselves by now.

"I suppose we should follow them," Hakuba said, beckoning to Shinichi. "It appears I must apologise," he added as Shinichi followed him.

"Whatever for?" the Detective of the East asked innocently, taking a few seconds to glance over the glass display case Kid had so effortlessly bypassed. It showed no signs of tampering, not that he had expected to find any. _He distracted us all with the smoke while he just slipped past the guards and opened it normally. Nothing fancy. If I didn't know this guy could do much, much more elaborate and amazing things, I would be thoroughly unimpressed right now._

...Well, truthfully he was thoroughly unimpressed right now anyway. But simple was good, for tonight. Kid was only slightly less complicated to figure out at those times.

As they made their way to the stairwell, Hakuba had at least the grace to look a bit sheepish as he replied. "Merely wrong suspicions on my behalf. No matter. A warning, Kudo-san, since this appears to be your first time at a heist. Watch out for traps - Kid loves them." As if to illustrate his point, he sidestepped neatly and dragged Shinichi with him as a cascade of ping pong balls came flooding down the stairs.

"...Ping pong balls?" Shinichi felt the need to ask as the torrent slowed. Hakuba gave him a level look.

"I didn't say they were conventional traps."

"...Right. Thank you, I'll keep my eye out." _Although I already knew that, since I've been to heists before._ Not that Hakuba could know that. A few straggling ping pong balls bounced past their feet as they ascended the flight of stairs into another corridor.

He needed to ditch Hakuba as soon as possible and make it to the roof - he needed to get there before Kid did. Fortunately, the opportunity came at the next hallway and the detective slipped off in a different direction to the blonde.

**.:||:.**

_Chapter End  
><em>_**Next Chapter:** Rooftop Meetings_

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><p>AN: Finally, this site is no longer eating the spaces between my italics. Now it's just hating my section dividers. I really can't win :\ Also, I forgot what Hakuba calls Conan/Shinichi and I can't remember what chapters I need to check to find out. So forgive me if it's wrong orz

First half of the double-post Saturday! Just need to edit the next chapter :P Thanks for reading!


	5. Rooftop Meetings

Double post to make up for last week! :D

**Warnings**: Potential OOCness (yes, I will warn you of this every time until I feel more confident writing them :P) and, um, KaiShin-ness? or rather, ShinKai-ness? I guess? Anyway, if you have a problem with guys kissing, then you really shouldn't be reading this story ;P Also language warnings, maybe twice.

Thanks to Nanaga for beta-ing~ and to everyone who has read/reviewed/faved/alerted so far~ :D Enjoy!

Edit: [16/1/12] FFnet ate a few of my words without me realising, so just fixing that up. Sorry if you got re-alerted to this chapter because of that.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter 4: Rooftop Meetings<strong>_

Kid was disappointed.

He'd been expecting the arrival of a second detective besides Hakuba to shake things up and give him a challenge, especially since Tantei-kun wasn't there (which in itself sparked a torrent of disappointment and slight relief). However, somewhere between the display room downstairs and the rooftop the other detective had disappeared completely. The magician-thief had seen Hakuba succumb to one of his traps a few minutes earlier, and Kudo hadn't been with him. Nor was he with the rest of the Task Force.

Kid sighed. Not that the Task Force wasn't lovely to dodge and all but they just lacked... something. Certainly not determination, but it was just that spark that Tantei-kun (and he'd admit it, Hakuba also) had that challenged him and made him feel _alive_.

He held the Sunshine Drop up to the moon, letting the silvery light filter through it. Although it threw beautiful golden spangles across his face, there was no sign of the red glow that would indicate Pandora. _Nothing again_, he sighed to himself, bringing his arm down and bouncing the gem on his palm.

"Not what you wanted?" a calm voice said from behind him.

The thief managed to hide his flinch - _he'd been sure there was no-one up here!_ - as he turned smoothly to find Shinichi Kudo standing a few meters away, facing him. That razor grin growing on his face - had the detective been waiting up here to ambush him? - Kid turned around fully so that his back was to the railings enclosing the roof.

"Weeeelll~" he drawled. "Look who decided to turn up! Hello, Meitantei. I was afraid you'd gotten lost."

"It took some time to dodge all of your traps," Shinichi replied, taking a step closer. Kaito was prepared to dodge back out of the way should the detective make a dash for him, but it seemed Kudo was content to stay where he was for the moment. "Some of them were, erm, quite inventive."

"Why, thank you." While he was talking, Kaito was busy studying the detective properly, now that the thief had a good view of his face. Luckily, Kaito's own face was shadowed by his hat and the bright moon behind him. He catalogued what he saw as though he were planning an impersonation... which, come to think of it, wasn't actually a bad idea, considering Hakuba had already cleared his fellow detective. He thought he could see why the blonde had focused his suspicions on Kudo, and not just because he was new. It was... astounding, the amount of similarity between their faces; Kaito wouldn't even have to use a mask, just a ton of hair gel (come on, who had hair _that_ freakishly flat?) and maybe some contacts, considering his own eyes were a lighter, almost purple hue as opposed to the detective's piercing blue. _It's like looking into a distorted mirror._ "So, Meitantei, what do you intend to do now that you've caught up with me~?"

He drew the full focus of that intense blue gaze and shivered slightly. Shinichi's mouth quirked up in a smirk that seemed oddly familiar. "Why, catch you and find out who you really are," he replied. Kid was opening his mouth for a retort, a smirk of his own in place, when the detective continued on: "...is what I would say any other night, but tonight I actually just want to talk to you. And perhaps ask a favour."

"Aw, talk to me~?" Kid pouted. "You're as bad as Tantei-san, always going on about 'why do you do this?' and stuff." To be honest, Kaito was a bit curious by this point. What kind of _favour_ could a detective possibly want from him? Especially one he'd never met before?

"That's not the gem you're after, is it?" Shinichi asked, completely ignoring Kid's words.

The thief frowned slightly. "What makes you think that?"

"Conan told me about what happened at the last heist."

_Poker Face, Poker Face!_ Kaito reminded himself sternly. _I can't afford to give this guy any clues. Damn that brat!_

"Oh? You know Tantei-kun?" he asked instead, making his voice light and curious. "Where is he tonight, by the way?" _Take the bait, Kudo..._

"He's my cousin and he's sick with a cold, so I'm filling in for him tonight," Shinichi said amicably, before his tone dropped into a stern demeanour and the gaze resting on Kid sharpened. "And stop trying to dodge the question, Kid." _Crap._ "I know there are people trying to kill you for whatever you're after, although I don't know why. Conan hasn't told anyone else except me about all of this, by the way, so you needn't worry about that. Why are there people trying to kill you, Kid? What could you be after that is that important?"

"What makes you think I'll tell you?" Kaito asked, almost flippantly.

"Because," Shinichi said simply, "I'm trying to understand."

Kid narrowed his eyes at that. He'd heard those words, almost those exact words, although the tone was all wrong, calm where there should have been frustration. But he couldn't for the life of him remember where he'd heard the words before, or why they struck such an odd chord in him! "The thought is appreciated, Meitantei," he said carefully, "but your understanding is not necessary. You no doubt heard my request from Tantei-kun, but I will reiterate: _Leave. It. Alone._"

"But I want to help," Shinichi shot back. "And... there's something I may need your help with as well."

Kaito was intrigued beyond measure, really, he was, but a significant portion of his instincts were politely screaming at him that it would be a very good idea if he _got the hell out of there NOW._ He hopped back a few steps. "Sorry, Meitantei, but I'm afraid I've spent enough time here as it is. If you'll excuse me..." He drew back his hand to release a smoke bomb (regular smoke, not sleeping gas) to cover his escape, but a shout suddenly burst out of Kudo.

"KID! Don't you dare leave!"

Blue light flashed, zigzagging a path through the air to wrap itself around Kid's upraised wrist. The feel of it was like getting hit with a static electricity shock, combined with the sensation of pins and needles. The sensation startled him enough that he dropped the smoke bomb by accident, sending green smoke billowing up around them. He tried to dart backwards and take advantage of the smoke to activate his glider and make a getaway, but no such luck. Something yanked at his wrist, preventing him from going backwards. The smoke dissipated slowly, revealing a coughing Shinichi.

"I really hadn't wanted to resort to this," Shinichi said quietly, when he'd recovered from the smoke. "It's a waste of my energy and completely counterproductive to my cause. But I _need_ to talk to you, and I can't do that if you run off every time I try."

Utterly confused, Kaito glanced down at his wrist, wondering what on earth had stopped him. Kudo hadn't gotten close enough to him to handcuff him, so what...? His thoughts trailed off in a bafflement as he stared at his wrist, jerking it up for closer examination.

Azure light encircled around his wrist, not snugly but also not loose enough that he could shake it off. It made his skin fizz when he poked it cautiously (not having a clue what was going on) and he could hear it humming slightly as it vibrated minutely against his skin. There was that same pins and needles effect from earlier where the cuff rested on his skin directly - luckily, his glove prevented most of the damage. He raised his arm higher, finding a cord of the same blue light somehow merged seamlessly to the cuff. It stretched away from him, towards Kudo, and with a shock Kaito realised that Kudo had an identical azure band encircling his wrist that the other end of the cord attached to. It was rather like a pair of handcuffs with a long rope between them instead of a short link chain.

He was _cuffed_ to Kudo.

A detective.

By some weird crackly light thing.

_...Now would be a really, _really_ good time to wake up, Kaito._

He raised his eyes slowly to meet Kudo's, whose usual _I-caught-the-suspect_ smirk had been replaced with a small apologetic smile. His mind didn't even stop to think on the implications of that; it was still stuck on the whole _handcuffs made of glowing light_ thing going on.

To his immense, immense gratitude, Poker Face had taken over when his mind had gone AWOL for those last few seconds. His voice was fairly steady (so if it trembled a bit, who could blame him? _Detective! Handcuffs! Weird glowing lights! What the hell?_) as he held out his afflicted wrist, raised an eyebrow at the other detective and said (mostly) calmly, "Interesting handcuffs you have here, Meitantei."

_Well, he's not freaking out... yet_, Shinichi observed. _I'd thought it might come to this, but... argh, like he's going to listen to a thing I say when I've literally got him on a leash!_ The shifting of cloth drew his attention back to the thief. His hands were now hidden again, but Shinichi could tell that he was going for his lock picks. "I really wouldn't try that if I were you," he warned Kid, but the white clad thief either didn't hear him or was ignoring him. His suspicions were met a few seconds later as Kid yelped, yanking his other hand away from the energy cuffs to suck on the tip of a finger.

"What the _hell_?" Kaito hissed. The lock pick had quite literally _melted_ in his hand, burning a hole through his glove and now his fingers were throbbing in pain. Only quick reflexes had stopped his injuries from being anything worse. He glared at the detective across from him.

"I did warn you," Shinichi pointed out. "Although they may be shaped like normal handcuffs, with keyholes and so on, that's only because I'm using the real thing as a reference in my head. These are anything but normal."

"You don't say," Kaito replied faintly. "Care to explain? I'm afraid you've really lost me on this one." Poker Face was making a extraordinary effort to remain intact and functional. Kaito was really feeling lost and the super panic threatening to bubble up in his gut was _not helping_.

"They're made out of energy. _Pure _energy, which is why it probably feels like getting zapped by static electricity when it hits your skin - at least you have gloves." Shinichi held up his own wrist, displaying the bare skin his cuff rested on. "I tried toning down the zap as much as I could, but I really don't have much control yet. This is about the only thing I _can_ do with it."

Kaito hadn't even realised the detective had moved forward until he was right there in front of him. He shied back instantly, only to be brought up short by the cuffs yet _again_ - the rope connecting them had gotten shorter somehow. And he thought dealing with Akako was strange -

_Shit. Is this like Akako's magic?_ His mind, still bordering on the edge of hysteria, wanted to break down in laughter at the thought of a logical _detective_ using _magic_. Or maybe he just wanted to break down into hysterical tears. He really couldn't decide.

The detective had taken advantage of Kid's distraction to grab his injured hand, inspecting it closely. "I'm sorry, I should have warned you earlier about what might happen it you tried picking the lock. The burn doesn't look too bad, although you should run it under cold water as soon as you have the chance. And put lotion on it afterwards. Damn, I wish I knew how to heal... but I wouldn't have a clue where to start."

It occurred to Kaito that the detective was right in front of him, _in his personal space_, checking his hand over and babbling away (did he think Kaito didn't know how to treat a burn? And what did he mean by _healing_?). Yet, despite all of this, despite the proximity, despite that he had one of Kaito's hands cuffed to his and the other caught in his hands, Shinichi didn't look up, didn't try to make a move to take off his hat or remove his monocle. And it was deliberate, he'd been looking at him directly while there had still been distance between them. The detective was deliberately, studious ignoring his face and the chance to find out who he was, preferring instead to fuss over his injury like a mother hen.

Kaito wondered if he should just give up on understanding _anything_ that night. It seemed like a lost cause.

"Kid?" Shinichi asked uncertainly. He didn't look up, couldn't look up, because catching him like this was totally unfair to the rules of their game and finding out who he was through something Kid had no chance of fighting was _cheating_ and Shinichi owed him at least that much. But Kid had been oddly silent for the last few minutes and it was beginning to make him worry a bit. The detective stepped back a pace to give the thief room, dropping the thief's hand as he did so, but still kept his eyes on the ground just in case. "Are you alright?"

Kaito blinked for a second, bewildered brain taking longer to process the question than it should have before bursting into laughter. The laughter had a slight manic, hysterical edge to it, but it felt _good_. He could tell that he was worrying the detective by the way Shinichi shifted: clearly the detective wanted to raise his head and check on him, but wasn't going to do so for whatever reasons he had decided.

"Kid?" Shinichi asked again, more uncertainly. The thief's laughter subsided, although the white-clad shoulders were still shaking slightly. Shinichi felt his hand being pulled up as Kid raised his own to peer again at the energy cuff with an interested look in his eyes.

As for Kaito, the laughter had given him a chance to calm down and now he had managed to get his Poker Face - and his thoughts - back under control. He needed to think this through carefully, because if you took away all the weirdness of the situation, the fact remained that he was still handcuffed to a detective. _Alright, Kaito, time to think this through like one of them..._

Fact: He was handcuffed to a detective, one Shinichi Kudo, who he really did not know much about beyond what he could remember seeing in the papers long ago.

Fact: He couldn't pick the handcuffs and it was downright dangerous to do so - see his hand, Exhibit A. _Ouch._

Fact: The handcuffs were made of some kind of energy, if he'd heard Kudo right, and the detective could control them... but apparently not do much else?

Fact: Despite being a detective, Kudo was making absolutely no move to figure out who he was now that the detective had (Kaito reluctantly admitted) caught him.

Fact: Kudo was rather nervous. Although he had a passable poker face, it couldn't stand up to an expert's eye like Kaito's.

Supposition: The rest of the Task Force (and Hakuba) would probably make their way out of his traps in a few minutes, which meant they'd arrive at the roof soon after. Kaito figured they had about five minutes, tops.

Fact: Kudo said he wanted to talk to him. _Needed_ to talk to him. Maybe ask a favour. Again, Kaito wanted to know exactly what kind of favour a detective like Kudo would want to ask of a thief like himself.

Conclusion: If Kudo _was_ somehow using magic (and hey, Akako proved it existed... sort of) and these cuffs were the extent of what he could do, he wouldn't be able to stop Kaito once they disappeared. With the element of surprise gone, Kaito was fairly confident he could dodge if Kudo tried the same trick twice.

Conclusion: Kaito needed to get the detective to release the energy cuffs since he couldn't pick them or twist his hand out. Considering the detective wanted to talk to him and was apparently only using them to make sure Kid didn't run off before he could do so, the quickest way to achieve this was to just hear the detective out. He didn't have to promise anything.

Kudo was still emitting that vague sense of worry and Kaito remembered belatedly that the detective had asked him something before he had become lost in his thoughts and his study of the blue band around his wrist. "I'm fine, Meitantei. You really needn't fuss over my hand like that either." He watched in amusement as Kudo's head jerked up, a faint blush of embarrassment spreading across pale cheeks until the detective realised what he was doing and averted his eyes off to the side. Well, that was definite confirmation that Kudo didn't want to see his face. Kaito wondered why (a part of him, the part that was purely Kid, was in fact a bit miffed at the idea that someone _didn't_ seem to care about finding him out). He could only surmise that Kudo was being truthful about only wanting to talk to him and was trying not to scare Kid off before he could do so. The whole freaky energy cuffs thing made that thought rather redundant, but Kudo _had_ said he hadn't wanted to do that...

"I'm not fussing," the detective retorted to Kid's previous comment, the growl in his voice at odds with the embarrassment still on his face. "But it _is_ my fault you got hurt in the first place, and I'm sorry."

Kid made an absent, non-committal hum in reply and continued to study the band around his wrist. Shinichi knew he shouldn't have done it - it was draining him just to keep something simple like this going and there was no way Kid would listen when he was cornered like this, especially not when he was trying to escape -

The Task Force! How could he have forgotten? How long had they been up here?

"There's still time." Kid must have noticed his glance towards the door to the roof because when he glanced at the thief in surprise at the timely statement, he found that purple gaze focused on him. "I'm listening, Meitantei, but we've only got about five minutes before my wonderful Task Force comes bursting through that door so you'll have to make it fast. What did you want to say to me?" Neither questioned the assumption that Shinichi would release him if the others showed up.

"I -" _Wait, he's actually going to listen?_ Shinichi thought with a small amount of wonderment. The thief had moved back, putting a bit more distance between thief and detective and Shinichi had allowed it, letting the rope connecting the two cuffs stretch. Shinichi could probably look at him now without the risk of seeing too much of his face, but he still kept his eyes averted anyway. Five minutes... where to start? _It wasn't_ _enough time_! "It's about this, actually," he began, holding his wrist (and its decoration) up and shaking it slightly for emphasis. "Which you're taking rather better than I had expected, to tell the truth. I..."

Kid frowned as Shinichi broke off, putting a hand to his forehead like it pained him and swaying slightly on the spot. "Meitantei?" Then again, as the detective staggered slightly, his eyes shut tight: "Meitantei!" Kid darted forward as the detective swayed again and then collapsed on the spot, catching him and holding him up. Shinichi groaned, his eyes still shut tightly and his brow creased in pain. The blue energy around both their wrists flickered in and out, in and out like a dying fluorescent light. Kaito cursed, pulling off the glove on his injured hand to rest against the detective's forehead. Kudo was burning up.

Shinichi had held onto the power for too long and now his body was rebelling. He just hoped that the backlash he was about to suffer wouldn't revert him back to Conan prematurely, in front of Kid. The detective became aware of arms holding him up, a voice calling him and knew them to be the thief's. He couldn't let the thief get caught up in the backlash! He squirmed, trying to get the thief to let him go. One of Shinichi's hands came into contact with Kid's chest, splayed out flat. He tried shoving the thief away, but the angle was all wrong and his strength was fading fast. So he grabbed the power fluctuating wildly inside of him (at this point, the backlash for using more of his power surely couldn't be that much worse) and sent out a _pulse_ to try and knock the thief away.

To Shinichi, it was like standing beside a giant bell and ringing it, so close that you felt the vibrations come right back at you full force, shivering across your whole body. Except that this was _Contactor_ magic and he'd shoved the thief with it and the echoes coming from Kid could only mean that -

_Kid had Contract potential._

The phrase that surfaced in the detective's mind was not one that he'd ever heard or thought before, but it _felt_ right. Relief coursed through him - the thief _did_ have the ability to channel his power, he'd _found help_, wouldn't be (as much of) a danger to those around him anymore. He looked up into frantic, worried violet eyes (had Kid felt anything from that pulse? Shinichi was still reeling from the strength of the echoes), heard Kid ask him if he was alright.

"It's because I'm not supposed to be able to..." Shinichi tried to explain, but his words were becoming slurred and he wasn't sure if Kid could understand them. This wasn't good, he'd found _help_, he needed to explain and ask Kid to help him but he couldn't speak properly and there was no _time_ because the Task Force would be here any minute and Kid would have to go and leave him and the backlash was beginning to hit home now, bone deep exhaustion and immense pain all rolled into one and he looked up -

- looked up into Kid's face, into Kid's violet eyes gleaming in the moonlight and filled with concern -

- felt a desperate _need_ inside of him as the pain built up, burning -

- Kid could help, could stop the pain, he just needed to _make the Contract_ -

Before he could even fully process what he was doing, just riding along on the wave of agony inside him and that incessant _need_ driving him, Shinichi had blindly fumbled at the thief's chest with the hand there, catching and gripping the thief's tie to yank his head down and press his lips against Kid's.

**.:||:.**

Kaito was pretty sure he'd lost contact with reality again.

One minute, he'd been holding the shaking detective up, calling his name with ever-increasing worry when the air _flexed_ like it had once before, a thousand times stronger than the vague memory from the last heist. It had sent shivers down the thief's spine. Kudo was pale, too pale, and with a start Kaito had realised the detective had been growing paler throughout their entire talk, he just hadn't noticed with his preoccupation with the energy cuffs. _They _were still flickering, on-off-on-off, distracting him for a second until Kudo had groaned, eyes fluttering open for a moment and the _pain_ in the blue eyes had taken Kaito's breath away for a moment.

_What's going on?_

Then Kudo had slurred something, he wasn't sure what because the same panic that had risen last time a detective had collapsed in front of him (only a fortnight ago! They were dropping like flies! Were his heists becoming cursed or something?) was rising again. The energy cuff around his wrist disappeared entirely, but Kid didn't notice because he'd just caught Kudo's gaze again and this time there was a burning look in his eyes that the thief wasn't sure if he liked the look of -

...and then he felt the feel of lips on his own.

It took a moment to register in his panic what was happening, that Shinichi Kudo, a renown detective, was currently _kissing him_.

_Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-?_

With a muffled sound of protest, he tried to jerk his head back, to break the kiss before even trying to figure out this bizarre turn of events. However, Shinichi's grip on his tie was like iron; he wasn't going to get out of this until the detective decided to let him go.

...This was the _second_ time now that he'd caught Kaito off guard! Kaito was seriously _not_ amused.

Shinichi yanked the tie down harder, pressing his lips against the thief's more firmly, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from Kid and the cold, hard curve of the monocle pressing against his skin. He reached out with his power, reaching _through_ Kid, magic searching hungrily for what it had sensed earlier inside the thief. _Must make the Contract, end the pain, make it safe -_

His power found what it was looking for, swirling around the power inside Kid and weaving itself into the patterns it found there. He barely noticed the small gasp from the other boy as the Contractor magic expanded out from the core of Kid's power, forcing channels inside the thief wide open as it travelled through unused pathways, like a river bursting through floodgates. There was still that final link to make, that would seal the Contract between Contractor and partner, and Shinichi growled into the kiss when he couldn't find it.

_I have no idea what's going on but like hell I'm going to let it keep going this way_, Kaito thought. He had let Kudo go, only to find that the detective had already regained his footing and his strength. The thief brought both his hands up, intending on shoving the guy away when the kiss _changed_, becoming more heated, more desperate, like the detective was demanding something from him but what it was, Kaito had no idea. Then there was heat, pooling in his chest and his stomach with a strange fizzing sensation and spreading outwards, twining through him intimately. His knees felt weak and he found himself gripping the front of the detective's suit with the hands that had intended to shove the man away, just to stop himself collapsing to the ground like Kudo almost had a minute ago.

The detective growled against Kaito's mouth, drawing a shiver from the thief. Something inside Kaito just - snapped into place, stealing all of the energy out of him. He did collapse then, knees buckling, but Kudo caught him quickly and slowly lowered them both down until they were both sitting on the cold concrete where they stayed, Kaito cradled in the detective arms as he tried to get his breath (and strength) back, panting in the cold night air. It was warm, too warm and he felt drained, lacking even the energy to bat away the detective's hand as it started to rub his back gently.

"What...was that supposed to be...Meitantei?" he managed to force out between pants, using every inch of his willpower to summon up and hold his Poker Face. He had to maintain his composure at all costs, not just for himself but for Kid and his father's image. _Kind of hard to do when you're practically sitting in the guy's lap_, his mind chose that moment to pipe up. Kaito ignored it, aware that if he tried to stand up or move away now he'd just fall flat on his face and that wouldn't help in the slightest.

_On his face_... With a start, his hand flew up to check the side of his face and he almost sighed with relief at finding the monocle still firmly in place. His hand crept higher, touched the brim of his hat (again, that feeling of relief) and he pulled it down low over his eyes to hide his face further.

"Relax, I didn't see anything I'm not supposed to," Kudo's voice came from above him, slightly breathless but sounding tiredly amused. "I didn't come here tonight to figure out your secrets."

"Well, you're doing a good job of keeping yours," Kaito muttered. "I'm still just as confused as before." _Not gonna think about the kiss, not thinking about it at all..._ "What was _that_ all about, _Meitantei_?" _Ack, too late._

Shinichi flinched at the hard note in Kid's voice, the hand on the thief's back stilling. To tell the truth, he was just as bewildered as the thief as to what had just happened and he was pretty sure that the bubble of calm he was currently existing in was the only thing stopping him from freaking out. Or just wanting to crawl into bed and hide for the next hundred years. He'd kis - no, he wasn't even going to consider it. Not now. He'd work it all out when he was alone and no-one was around to see his mortification.

"That... I really did not intend that," he muttered, resting his forehead gently against Kid's top hat. "Or expect it. It's not how it was supposed to go." _I'm not even really sure what happened..._

The detective sounded... weary, to Kid's ears. He strained to hear as Kudo's voice dropped to an almost inaudible level - if they hadn't been in such close proximity he wouldn't have heard anything at all. _Did he just say something about a contract? What?_ He shifted slightly, testing his leg muscles. He was pretty sure he had the strength to stand now and could probably pilot his glider, although landing was going to be a bitch. As long as he didn't try anything fancy, he could probably get away now. But it was so comfortable, so warm here, tucked into the detective's arms... he didn't really want to move. When he realised what he was thinking, Kaito blanched. _Ooookay, definitely time for me to be long gone._

But he still didn't have _any_ kind of explanation, dammit! He opened his mouth, intending to demand answers - he was pretty sure Kudo would give them to him if he asked flat out - only to shut it a second later, stiffening as he heard the sounds of boots running up the stairs towards them. Crap, the Task Force had managed to escape from his traps! He had to curse their timing.

Kudo's hearing must have been almost as good as his, because he felt the detective freeze only moments after he did. His reaction was surprising - he dropped both hands from Kid and leant back, getting out of the thief's way. "You can stand now, can't you?"

"More than that," Kid grinned. "Sorry, Meitantei~" Shinichi barely had the time to wonder what Kid was going to do with _that_ tone of voice before a can appeared in the magician-thief's uninjured hand and spurted a cloud of pink gas into the detective's face. "Sleepy time~"

_I am SO going to kick a soccer ball into his face next time I see him,_ Shinichi growled to himself before his eyes fluttered closed and the world went black.

Kaito tucked the can of sleeping gas back into his suit, standing up carefully - good, he could move properly now. He spared a glance for the detective, sprawled asleep on the concrete, before bringing out the object of that night's heist and tucking it into Kudo's hand. The gem wasn't the one he wanted and besides, the detective probably had earned something for managing to catch him off guard twice that night, as much as Kaito inwardly grumbled about it.

Three seconds til the Task Force arrived: one to ready a smoke bomb in one hand and two to make it to the edge of the roof so that he was vaulting onto the railing at the same time the door burst open behind him, police officers spilling onto the roof. He swayed a bit when he landed, reminding him that his body was still recovering from... whatever the hell the last eight minutes had been.

"KID!" he heard Nakamori yell, making a smirk spread across his face. The thief spun on one foot smoothly to face them all.

"It was good of you to come see me off, Inspector!" he called. "I didn't know you cared!"

While Nakamori replied to that with a few gloriously foul swear words, Kaito glanced back towards the sleeping detective. He was surrounded by members of the Kid Task Force, some of whom were trying to wake him up. Kaito was struck by the sudden feeling that he shouldn't be leaving the detective amongst all these enemies, that he needed to stay and protect him -

The protectiveness towards the detective surged up inside him with absolutely no warning at all, and he had to grapple with it for a few moments. This was _absurd_, maybe he'd feel this protective towards Tantei-kun (he was just a little guy, after all, no matter how he acted, and the kid was always attracting trouble of some kind) but he didn't even _know_ Kudo! And yes, _no-one gets hurt_ was his one unbreakable rule, but this was the _Task Force_, for crying out loud. _His_ Task Force. The only thing the detective might need protecting from was Nakamori-keibu's rants, and that was easily solved with a pair of earmuffs. Or just not being there at the time. It - was- absurd!

The wave of feeling released him in moments, giving him something else to chalk up on the board of tonight's weird stuff. Nothing showed through his masks, however, and Nakamori and his men did not see anything out of the ordinary.

"Well, if that's the way you feel, Inspector," he called, "As much as it pains me, I shall leave for tonight. Adieu!" He swept a bow, using the motion to set off the smoke bomb he had prepared earlier. As the smoke billowed over the rest of the Task Force and Nakamori let out an enraged cry, the thief leant back and free-fell off the building, activating his glider at the last moment and soaring off into the night sky.

He was regretting ever wishing that this night would turn out to be interesting.

**.:||:.**

_Chapter End  
><em>_**Next Chapter:** Needle in a Haystack  
><em>

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><p>AN: Sorry Kid, no answers for you tonight~ Although I think Shinichi's also just as confused as to what happened... that was _not_ his plan lol

And I think that's about three soccer balls to the face Kid has saved up by now. Ouch. Watch out at your next heist, Kid~

Anyway, this is my first time writing any form of romance, sooooooo...yeah. It will be gradual. Probably. Hopefully. Contracts have more side effects than just sharing magic, but instantaneous love is not one of them :P There will be explanations about everything eventually~ *flees*

*pauses, calls back* As always, thanks for reading! *continues fleeing*


	6. Needle in a Haystack

Wow, you guys, thanks so much for your wonderful reviews! X3 Thanks also to Nanaga for beta-ing~

**Warnings:** None, for once! :D

Anyway, without further ado... have some of Shinichi's reaction! hahaha *runs away before she gets a soccer ball to the face* Enjoy~

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 5: Needle in a Haystack<strong>_

It had been a very annoyed Shinichi Kudo who had awoken to the concerned faces of a few of the Task Force assigned to catching Kid. After making sure he was alright, they'd clapped him on the back and welcomed him to the club for those who'd been knocked out by Kid - after all the months the thief had been active, it seemed that just about every Task Force personnel was a member, except for one guy who was allergic to the gas and thus had never been targeted by the thief. Shinichi wondered what that said about who more - that Kid knew enough about his Task Force to be aware of their allergies or that all the police officers seemed almost _proud_ to be in this unofficial club of theirs. Well, he would rather do without the headache afterward that came with lying on a concrete surface for who knew how long, thank you very much. Thank goodness the thief had never seen the need to gas him as Conan... although, Shinichi still wasn't impressed about the whole taser affair during the Kirin's Horn heist.

He'd been a bit surprised to find he'd had the Sunshine Drop on him when they found him, but on further reflection, it made sense if it really wasn't whatever it was Kid was looking for. The only conclusion Shinichi could come to on what the thief was after was that the thief was looking for a gemstone and that, judging by what he had targeted, it was fairly large. He also had to guess that Kid himself wasn't 100% sure on what it was either, judging by the wild variations in colour, rarity and value each of his targets had. Was the thief looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack?

...His mind was wandering again, focusing on everything and anything _but_ what had happened up there on the rooftop. Bad enough that he needed to think it over later to figure out just what had happened (much of it seemed a blurry haze of memories in the detective's mind), but he really didn't want to think about it while other people were around. Especially when _some people_ really weren't helping the matter...

"Kudo-san, you were with me one minute and not the next. What happened?" Hakuba demanded.

Shinichi sighed internally. Couldn't everyone just leave him alone now? "I went to the roof because I thought Kid would head there."

"What were you basing that on?"

_The fact he almost always goes for the roof when he can use his hang glider and he has a crowd?_ Shinichi thought sarcastically. "Kid seems to like high places, from what I've seen in the papers. I had a hunch, and I followed it. It wasn't like I was going to do much good running around with a mob."

"Hmm..." Hakuba mused. "So what happened when you arrived? Or did you get there before Kid?"

_Does this guy not know when to quit? I'm pretty sure I explained this all to Inspector Nakamori before. Within this guy's earshot, I might add._ "It took me a while to get past the traps he'd set up on the way to the roof, so I only got there a bit before Kid did. We had the usual short and mocking conversation, he gassed me and he left, I assume."

"Do you know why he gave you back the gem even though he knocked you out?" the blonde inquired, genuinely curious. From what he could tell from Kudo's recollection of events, Kid had given Kudo the Sunshine Drop _after_ he'd put the detective to sleep, when he wasn't a threat anymore. Decidedly odd.

_Because it wasn't what he wanted? Because I managed to catch him and he's usually fair about repaying that?_ Shinichi wanted to reply, but didn't. Shinichi Kudo had never met Kid before and he didn't deal with thieves, so how would he know? Anyway, Kid repaid _Conan_ in their battle of wits, if Conan did well enough in stopping him, not Shinichi. So was this something Kid did for all his detectives? In the end he merely shrugged in response to the blonde detective's question. "I'm afraid I haven't a clue, Hakuba-san."

Hakuba nodded at that. He turned away, and then turned back, one last question to ask. "Kudo-san, you said you were related to Conan Edogawa, is that right?"

"Yes," the dark-haired detective replied, frowning slightly. Where was Hakuba going with this?

"I'm not sure if you know, but a fortnight ago at another Kid heist that Conan-kun attended, Kid carried him off at the end of it. I've heard some reports that there were gunshots. Has Conan said anything to you about it?"

_More than you know._ Shinichi looked Hakuba straight in the eye, frowning in feigned concern. "No, he hasn't mentioned a thing about it. Gunshots? Are you sure?"

The blonde detective nodded. "It's not the first time there have been gunshots reported at Kid heists. That was just the first that there was another person on site at the time."

"I see..." Shinichi trailed off, thinking. It all fit - Kid had seemed rather familiar with the man trying to kill him so they must have met several times before. "When did they start, do you know?"

"Around a year ago, as far as I can tell," Hakuba replied. "If you see Conan, tell him I wish to have a word with him. Good night, Kudo-san."

Shinichi watched the detective leave with a frown. A year ago... before he'd become Conan, then. But Kid had been around for far longer than that - ignoring Kid's exploits before the thief had disappeared eight years ago, of course: Shinichi may have done his best not to see Kid's face, but his body was definitely that of a young man (Shinichi refused to delve further into the memory providing this information). Whoever this Kid was, he wasn't the same one that had first appeared eighteen years ago. If the shootings had only started up long after Kid's return, then what had prompted them?

He needed more data. But before that, he needed more sleep. And preferably a large rock to hide under until he could stop feeling mortified about the night's events.

**.:||:.**

"Kudo-kun, no matter how many times you try to merge with the couch, it isn't going to work," Ai commented upon entering Agasa's living room and finding Shinichi sprawled on the couch, face buried under a pillow. "Hurry up, I need to get some of these tests done before the antidote wears off, since you ran off earlier before I could run them."

"Mmpf," was all the response she got, the detective refusing to move from his place of refuge. Ai frowned. The shrunken scientist was not someone who liked to be kept waiting. She leant forward and jabbed Shinichi in the side. He jerked with a squawk of surprise, almost falling off the couch as he scrambled to get out of her reach. "Haibara!"

"You were being slow. You can sulk in my lab as well as you can sulk out here. Come on." The small girl turned around and left, not looking back to see if the detective was following. Deciding it was better not to incite her ire any further, Shinichi sighed and pushed himself off the couch, shuffling after her.

"Was _not_ sulking," Ai heard him mutter petulantly, making her smirk.

Used to Haibara's tests by now, Shinichi perched on the edge of the bed when they arrived at the lab, watching as Ai gathered up the equipment she needed. She placed most of it on the bed next to him and held out her hand. "Wrist, please." She checked his pulse, one eye on her watch as she asked absently, "So what happened tonight? Beyond what you told the professor earlier. You wouldn't be sulking this much if it was just a matter of damaged pride because Kid knocked you out."

"I'm not sulking."

"Moping, then." Ai ignored the glare directed at her as she readied a needle. "Roll up your sleeve and make a fist," she instructed, as Shinichi obeyed. "So? How did things with Kaitou Kid go? Could you tell if he had Contract potential or not?"

There was something about that sentence which was odd, but nothing came to mind immediately so he filed it away in the back of his mind and answered. "I... yeah. I was close enough this time when the pulse went off to feel the echoes. He has it."

"Well, isn't that something you should be happy about?" Ai pointed out, wondering why the detective was so unenthusiastic about the discovery. "You've found a potential partner. It's what you were hoping for, wasn't it?"

"Yeah...Ow!" Shinichi yelped. "Don't jab me for the fun of it!"

"It was an accident," Haibara said, her tone indicating that the statement was a complete lie and looking completely unapologetic as she drew his blood. "Did you end up talking to him?"

"...Sort of..."

Haibara raised an eyebrow at the vague answer. "So do you think he'll agree? It seems like you've decided to trust him about the whole thing."

Shinichi hesitated. "He... may not have a choice in the matter anymore..."

Ai glanced at him sharply. "What do you mean?" Shinichi mumbled something, a blush beginning to rise in his cheeks. "Pardon?"

"IsaidIkindakissedhim," the detective said in a rush, hiding his face in his hands. Ai stared at him for a moment, slowly replaying the mumbled jumble of words in her mind to work out just what the detective had actually said.

When she figured it out, she couldn't help but to burst into laughter. Shinichi glared at her through the screen of his fingers, face still glowing red with mortification. "It's _not funny_," the detective insisted with a long-suffering look, only making her laugh harder.

"You - you _kissed_ Kid? Why?" Ai asked, after she had recovered enough to be coherent. "I didn't think he was your type."

"I - Idiot!" came the growled response. "I'm not - I don't - I didn't mean to - it just kind of happened!" The last few words practically came out as a wail.

"Well, you probably surprised _him_ for sure. What did you mean earlier anyway, about him not having a choice anymore? I hardly see how kissing him would do that. I'd more say that it's your chances that aren't so good now, you might have scared him off..."

Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose, regretting that he'd ever had to tell Haibara - she'd never let him live it down now, evil woman. But her question had brought up the _other_ matter that was freaking him out and he thought that perhaps she might have more ideas on the matter than he currently did. "Because of this." He unbuttoned his shirt to his navel and pulled one half aside to expose his chest and the mark that had appeared on it, directly above his heart.

It certainly hadn't been there before the heist, Shinichi was sure of it. It looked like a tattoo of black ink and if he put his finger and thumb together to make a circle, it would be roughly the same shape and size. The design wasn't like anything he had seen before, a circle marked regularly with notches and overlaid with smaller circles at the cardinal points. Ai peered at it, then up at the detective. "This is..."

"Yeah," Shinichi confirmed. "If this is what I think it is, then I may have already made Kid into my partner without meaning to."

Ai was silent for a moment. Then: "Tell me everything that happened, from the beginning."

**.:||:.**

When he finished, she sighed. "You really can't do anything simple or normal, can you Kudo-kun?"

"Hey, I wasn't thinking clearly at the time!" Shinichi protested, still faintly blushing. "And I wasn't expecting anything like that! I thought 'finding a partner' just involved an agreement between the Contractor and whoever. _Not_ ki - some kind of - of - magical binding, as ridiculous as that sounds. Using my power _on _them. I don't even know what I did."

"Bound him to you, I would imagine," Ai commented idly, taking the opportunity to listen to his lungs and heart. "Created a link so that he can access your energy. He's supposed to channel it, after all."

"I thought you said you didn't know much about the whole thing," Shinichi said suspiciously, looking down at the not-child.

"I don't. I am merely hypothesising. You're starting to burn up again: you've lasted much longer in this form than I had expected when you first said you suffered a backlash."

"Making this... Contract... might have had something to do with that," the detective pointed out. "It must have stabilised my power or something, because the backlash disappeared almost immediately."

"So it would have burned up less of your energy. It makes sense..." Ai was lost in her thoughts. "I wonder if this will affect the way your body is reacting to the APTX 4869?"

"Will it?" Shinichi asked, slightly alarmed. _I don't need more complications, I've got enough as is!_ He shuddered as a small wave of pain shot through him, piercing him through the heart. Shinichi recognised it as the warning sign that his change back into Conan was approaching fast.

Ai shrugged. "That's what the tests are for. Here, I'm finished. The professor has already put a change of clothes for you in the bathroom, so you should head there now before things get worse." He nodded, pushing himself off the bed carefully as sweat started to bead on his forehead and his body started to heat up and headed for the door.

"Kudo-kun..." He turned, holding onto the doorframe to keep himself steady. The look on Haibara's face was odd. "In any case, I'm glad that you managed to find someone with Contract potential to help you."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that. I'm not so sure Kid will appreciate me having shanghai-ed him into this." Shinichi groaned, rubbing his temples one-handed as a blinding pain built behind them. "Not that he even knows what 'this' is. I - _nnnnmf - _didn't get much of a chance to explain things. I don't even want to think of what _he_ thinks is going on." He paused, suddenly realising something he'd noticed earlier but hadn't understood the implications of until now. "Wait, you called it Contract potential."

"Yes? That's what you called it, so I thought I'd do the same -"

"No, no, you mentioned it back at the start of the conversation. _Before_ I'd said anything about it. And I've -_nghhhhh_ - never called it that before, I never thought of the whole thing as a 'contract' until it popped up - _aaaagh_ - popped up in my thoughts on the rooftop tonight. So how did _you_ know what it was called?"

She met his determined stare and held it. "Kudo-kun, I told you, I heard about the project while I was working for Them. I'm bound to have picked up some things."

"But - " Shinichi couldn't finish as another wave of agony tore through him, stronger now. He could barely see through the haze in his vision. _I don't have long_ _now..._

"Kudo-kun, get to the bathroom, NOW!" Ai commanded.

Somehow, he made it, dropping to the floor almost immediately once he was inside. Then the blinding, burning pain was upon him, making him feel like every nerve in his body was being pulled out of his body. The detective writhed and thrashed as his body melted and shrank, screams echoing off the tiles.

A few seconds later, he was Conan again, lying unconscious on the ground.

**.:||:.**

_Chapter End  
><em>_**Next Chapter:** Marked Men_

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><p>AN: That couch appears to be Shinichi's sulking zone XD; Also, it occurred to me after having finished this chapter that it actually makes more sense for Shinichi to change back to Conan in the lab, especially since Haibara was musing about how the apotoxin might have been affected... but then Shinichi probably wouldn't have shut up trying to interrogate her. Sooooo... for the sake of plot, pretend there was a reason for this :P I might rewrite it later, we'll see.

I'm not really sure when this is set, to be honest. Apparently after the Kirin's Horn heist, but Okiya also doesn't appear to be living in Shinichi's house... I need to go figure this out properly and maybe rewrite things lol

Thanks for reading! :D


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